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  • apache
    apache
    noun
    a Parisian gangster, rowdy, or ruffian.
  • Apache
    Apache
    noun
    a member of an Athabascan people of the southwestern United States.

apache

1 American  
[uh-pahsh, uh-pash, a-pash] / əˈpɑʃ, əˈpæʃ, aˈpaʃ /

noun

  • apaches
    plural
  1. a Parisian gangster, rowdy, or ruffian.


Apache 2 American  
[uh-pach-ee] / əˈpætʃ i /

noun

  • Apaches,
    plural
  • Apache
    plural
  1. a member of an Athabascan people of the southwestern United States.

  2. any of the several Athabascan languages of Arizona and the Rio Grande basin.

  3. Military. a two-man U.S. Army helicopter designed to attack enemy armor with rockets or a 30mm gun and equipped for use in bad weather and in darkness.


adjective

  1. of or relating to an Athabascan people of the southwestern United States or their language.

Apache 1 British  
/ əˈpætʃɪ /

noun

  1. a member of a North American Indian people, formerly nomadic and warlike, inhabiting the southwestern US and N Mexico

  2. the language of this people, belonging to the Athapascan group of the Na-Dene phylum

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

apache 2 British  
/ əˈpɑːʃ, apaʃ, -ˈpæʃ /

noun

  1. a Parisian gangster or ruffian

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of apache1

1735–45, < French: Apache

Origin of Apache2

First recorded in 1915–20; from Mexican Spanish, perhaps from Zuni ʔa·paču “Navajos,” presumably applied formerly to the Apacheans (Navajos and Apaches) generally

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

He’s Dad the destroyer, who mapped out the steps for the apache dance that defines his children’s lives.

From New York Times Jul. 28, 2014

But the broken, jagged heart of this production belongs to Ms. Rodriguez and Mr. Cannavale, who turn their characters’ relationship into a bruising, tragicomic apache dance of love, betrayal and indecision.

From New York Times Apr. 12, 2011

The result is a bravura hodgepodge of Spanish and gypsy dances, pas de deux, a smattering of light-footed cupids and dryads and, for some obscure reason, a jig resembling a French apache dance.

From Time Magazine Archive

A model—Sapristi!—he called himself such, but for herself she would have called him un vrai apache!

From The Shadow of the East by E. M. (Edith Maude) Hull

Distress of the apache queen on finding her intended victim gone.

From Sundry Accounts by Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) Cobb

The U.S. military has grounded its Apache helicopters after two soldiers were killed near Fort Hood, Texas.

From Barron's Aug. 17, 2026

Boeing makes the Apache attack helicopter for militaries around the world.

From Barron's Aug. 17, 2026

The aircraft was an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter based at nearby Fort Hood, a major US Army base, the military said.

From BBC Aug. 12, 2026

That question vexes former Royal Netherlands Air Force Apache attack helicopter pilot Roy Lindelauf, who is now a professor of data science in the department of intelligent systems of Tilburg University.

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 19, 2026

“Gentlemen,” Apache Bill said when the tumult of his introduction had subsided.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy

He was also a gifted baseball player with the Arcadia High School Apaches baseball team.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 20, 2026

Apaches have been flying low over the strait for maritime patrols and precision strikes.

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 9, 2026

The Army said the AH-64 Apaches were conducting a training route past the Nashville area, where the country rock artist's hilltop estate is located.

From BBC Mar. 30, 2026

He added that the Apaches “have joined the fight on the southern flank.‘

From The Wall Street Journal Mar. 20, 2026

According to Grandma, a hundred years ago a tribe of Apaches had fought the U.S.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

But remember the crooks in Turn to the Right and the apaches in Seoenfh Heaven.

From Time Magazine Archive

Cowboys, apaches, and residents of Newport have probably far more grievous protests.

From Time Magazine Archive

From this radical start, she went on to order the fashionable women of three continents into the turtleneck sweaters of the apaches, to expose their knees and suppress their curves.

From Time Magazine Archive

Then there is an artist—the artist of whom you talk—who is one of the apaches!

From The Second Class Passenger Fifteen Stories by Perceval Gibbon

Then came cabs from the railway stations, Carrying men from all the nations, Olive-skinned French with clipped moustaches, Almond-eyed like Paris apaches.

From Right Royal by John Masefield

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