helicopter
(ˈhɛlɪkɒptə(r))
[ad. F. hélicoptère, f. Gr. ἕλικος, ἕλιξ spiral, helix + πτερόν wing.]
An aircraft which derives its lift and propulsive power principally from the action of one or more lifting screws or rotor-blades, usu. engine-driven, revolving horizontally: modern helicopters are highly-manœuvrable machines used for short or medium-range flights. Also attrib. and Comb. Also formerly in Fr. form.
| [1861 G. L. M. de Ponton Brit. Pat. 1929, The required ascensional motion is given to my aerostatical apparatus (which I intend denominating aeronef or helicoptere,) by means of two or more superposed horizontal helixes combined together.] 1887 tr. Verne's Clipper of Clouds iv, We can look forward to such contrivances..which we can call streophores, helicopters, orthopters..by means of which man will become the master of space. 1908 O. & W. Wright in Century Mag. Sept. 641/2 Several years later we began building these hélicoptères for ourselves. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 28 Jan. 4/2 Mr. Howard Wright's helicopter, with which flying tests have been satisfactorily carried out, is now en route for Italy. Ibid. 2 Mar. 4/1 The Gobron engined Breguet helicopter aeroplane. 1921 Glasgow Herald 11 Nov. 6 Recently the Aero Club of France..offered a prize..to the first helicopter pilot in France to take a machine 25 metres up in the air. 1923 Ibid. 5 May 8 (heading) Helicopter Flight. 1927 C. L. M. Brown Conquest of Air 39 The helicopter method of flight. 1958 Jane's Fighting Ships 1957–8 9 Official illustrations of the new..helicopter carrier. 1959 Daily Tel. 24 Apr. 20/7 He was opening the helicopter station built in Battersea. Ibid., It is intended primarily to be experimental and to assist in the development of helicopter services for London rather than as a permanent station. 1961 Ibid. 11 Oct. 25/7 The men are normal infantry, not specialist helicopter-borne troops. 1963 Economist 30 Mar. 1213/1 Several helicopter-carriers and three anti-submarine hunter-killer air groups. 1967 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 17 Mar. 4 The petrol drums..were blasted alight by tracer bullets from R.A.A.F. helicopter gunships hovering 60 ft. above the treetops. 1973 Guardian 24 Feb. 2/2 Three helicopter carriers had arrived in the Gulf of Tonkin to join the US naval fleet. |
Hence ˈhelicopt, ˈhelicopter vbs. trans. and intr., to fly with or as with a helicopter; to transport by helicopter; heliˈcopterist (now rare), one who uses a helicopter.
| 1923 Daily Mail 12 Feb. 7 M. Raoul de Pescara, the helicopterist. 1926 Spectator 10 Apr. 665/1 An albatross, helicoptering over the masthead, signalled the land. 1959 Time 23 Mar. 15 He might be helicoptered up to Camp David. 1961 Aeroplane CI. 121/2 The sequence is then: brakes off..and helicopt away. 1962 New Scientist 3 May 230/1 The rotor on its long spindle helicoptered up and out of its case into the air. 1965 Sunday Times 10 Oct. 44/3 They build it on deck, and then helicopt it ashore. 1968 Radio Times 10 Oct. 31/1 We joined her [sc. the aircraft⁓carrier] off Singapore, helicoptering over the rubber forest. |
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▸ helicopter parent n.with allusion to the notion of such parents ‘hovering’ over their children depreciative (orig. U.S.) a parent who takes an excessive and overprotective interest in the life of his or her child, esp. with regard to education.
| 1989 Frederick (Maryland) News-Post 6 Sept. b1/4 But don't be what Mr. Radovich calls ‘a *helicopter parent’, who hovers over children, making sure everything is done for them. 2006 Times (Nexis) 12 Sept. 4 Helicopter parents..think that they are helping and protecting their child by doing their homework. |