egg-beater
1. An implement or appliance used for beating eggs.
| 1828 E. Leslie Receipts 49 Beat the eggs in a broad shallow pan with a wooden-egg-beater or whisk. 1884 Health Exhib. Catal. 110/2 Patent Egg Beaters. |
2. = helicopter (see also quot. 1946). U.S. slang.
| 1937 Atlantic Monthly Jan. 26/1 Pilots of airplanes contemptuously termed autogiros ‘egg beaters’, and the whole idea appeared to be a colossal flop. 1946 Amer. Speech XXI. 310/1 Egg-beater, a twin-engine training plane, so termed because of the small size of the engines. 1948 Canadian Alpine Jrnl. June 178 One of those strange contraptions known as a helicopter or ‘egg-beater’. 1962 L. Deighton Ipcress File xxiv. 156 [Amer. loq.] ‘Egg beaters.’ The two helicopters came in. |