▪ I. air, n.1
(ɛə(r))
Forms: 3–5 eir, 4–5 eyr, 4–6 eyre, aier, 4–7 ayre, 5 eyir, eire, 5–6 eyer, ayer, 5–7 aire, 6 eyere, 6–7 ayr, 7 aër, 7– air.
[Br. I. II. a. OFr. air (Pr. air, aire, Sp. aire, Pg. ar, It. aire, aere):—L. āer-em, a. Gr. {alenismac}ήρ, {alenismac}έρ-α, f. ἄ-ειν, ἀ-ῆναι (ἀε-) to blow, breathe. (Mod.It. has largely substituted aria:—L. āerea adj. for aere. Cf. Florio 1598 ‘Aere (aire, aira) the aire. Also, an aspect, countenance, cheere, a look or apparance in the face of man or woman. Also, a tune or aire of a song or ditty.’ ‘Aria, as aere, the aire.’) Br. III. IV. did not arise from I. in Eng. but were adopted c1600 from Fr. air = apparence, extérieure, manière d'être, also suite de tons et de notes qui composent un chant, the connexion of which with atmospheric air is disputed.
1. Littré makes them two words, identifying air, manner, with OFr. aire ‘area, open place, aerie’ q.v. (which was occasionally masc.) through the chain of ideas ‘nest, stock, family, family character, derived manner,’ comparing phrases like faucon de bon aire, hawk of a good sort (stock, aerie); but no formal connexion can be traced between OFr. aire and mod.Fr. air, while OFr. aire never had the sense of ‘external appearance,’ which is moreover quite a late sense of mod.Fr. air (end of 16th c.). Diez, after Burguy, inclines to identify the two senses, through the ideas of ‘air, breath, spirit, character, manner,’ comparing the range of L. spiritus, originally ‘breath, air.’ 2. It seems probable that the sense of ‘manner’ was adopted in Fr. from It. in which it is of old standing (see Florio above). Diez says that the Pr. di bon aire (Fr. de bon aire) was adopted in It., and aire treated as the native aere, aire, aria, whence di buon' aria; hence it is not impossible that the development of senses supposed by Littré, may have taken place in It. and thence been transferred in 16th c. to Fr. air. 3. But it is more probable that there was no confusion with aire = aerie, and that the idea of manner—‘external manner, appearance, mien,’ rather than ‘innate character’—is a simple extension of the idea of the ‘enveloping or affecting atmosphere special to a place, or situation’ as when one is said to carry with him the ‘air of the office’ (Fr. air du bureau), or to catch ‘the air of the court,’ Shakes. (see below; cf. La Bruyere ‘L'air de cour est contagieux, il se prend à Versailles, comme l'accent normand à Rouen’) which Littré himself refers to ‘atmosphere,’ and which is not separable from ‘an air of gentility, of truth,’ etc. This would also best accord with Br. IV. undoubtedly of It. origination, aere, aria, (see Florio above), here translating L. modus ‘manner,’ also ‘musical mode, metre, measure, melody.’]
A. I. Atmospheric air.
1. a. The transparent, invisible, inodorous, and tasteless gaseous substance which envelopes the earth, and is breathed by all land animals; one of the four ‘elements’ of the ancients, but now known to be a mechanical mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, with the constant presence of a small quantity of carbonic acid gas, and traces of many other substances as contaminations.
| c 1300 in Wright Pop. Sc. 120 Þe four elementz, of wham we beoþ iwroȝt: the fur..th-eir..siþþe þe water and siþþe þe urþe. 1384 Chaucer H. Fame iii. 260 In his substance is but aire. 1393 Gower Conf. III. 33 As the plover doth of aire, I live, and am in good espeire. c 1440 in Household Ordin. (1790) 433 Stop hit well that no eyre goo oute. 1565 Golding Ovid's Met. ix. (1593) 227 Scarce her toong the aier hits. 1604 Shakes. Oth. iii. iii. 322 Trifles, light as ayre. 1610 ― Temp. iv. i. 150 These our actors..Are melted into ayre, into thin ayre. 1651 Hobbes Leviathan iii. xxxiv. 207 Aire, and aeriall substances, use not to be taken for Bodies, but..are called Wind, or Breath. 1660 Jer. Taylor Worthy Commun. i. §2. 43 Truth is the aire they breath. 1674 Petty Disc. bef. Royal Soc. 117 The Vnder-water-Air within the Vessels of Water-Divers, who the lower they go, do find their stock of Air more and more to shrink. 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v., We can actually weigh Air. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 39 As transparent, as colourless, as invisible as the air we breathe. |
b. fig. With reference to its unsubstantial or impalpable nature.
| 1692 South 12 Serm. (1697) I, Entertain'd only with the Air of Words and Metaphors. |
c. The air considered as a medium for the transmission of radio waves;
colloq. = radio n. 2,
esp. in
phr. on the air, (being) broadcast by radio transmission; so
off the air.
| 1927 Observer 11 Dec. 16 The only New York church which is ‘on the air’. 1928 Daily Express 13 Apr. 11/1 They will speak into the microphone as usual, but before being put ‘on the air’ their voice modulations will be turned upside down. 1940 N. & Q. CLXXIX. 66/1 On and off the air. 1955 Times 9 May 10/5 Radio and, particularly, television will play a large part in the election, and the campaign of the air has already begun. 1956 A. H. Compton Atomic Quest 255 The Hiroshima radio went off the air. 1964 Evening Standard 4 Feb. 16/2 Every policeman on the beat may be ‘on the air’ in a few years. Experiments with pocket radios..have established that they..can be of immense value to the constable on patrol. |
| attrib. 1928 Sunday Dispatch 16 Dec. 12/2 Air Hogs..Certain people..have been interrupting wireless transmission by crude signals from a private station. 1944 Amer. Speech XIX. 49 The New York agencies..spread fifth column over the pages of every subscribing newspaper in the country and onto the air waves as well. 1955 T. H. Pear Eng. Soc. Differences xi. 246 The listening public's approval or disapproval of the ‘air-time’ given to each. |
† 2. Any aeriform body ‘permanent’ as a
gas; ‘transient’ as a
vapour.
Obs. ‘
Factitious air or
artificial air, a name given by Boyle to all those elastic fluids which he found produced in chemical experiments, and to be different from the air of the atmosphere.’
Pantologia 1819.
The following are the chief of these obsolete uses:
acid air or
marine air, Muriatic Acid Gas;
alkaline air, Ammoniacal Gas,
fixed air, Carbonic Acid Gas;
dephlogisticated air, or
vital air, Oxygen;
sparry acid air, Fluoric Acid Gas;
inflammable air, Hydrogen;
hepatic air, Sulphuretted Hydrogen;
phlogisticated air, Nitrogen;
mephitic air, Carbonic Acid Gas, and Nitrogen.
| 1641 French Distill. vi. 177 This..gold nature would have perfected into an elixir but was hindred by the crude aire, which crude aire is..nothing else but..sulphur. 1692 Boyle Hist. Air in Chambers Cycl. s.v., Various solid and mineral bodies..being plunged in corrosive unelastic menstrua..afford a considerable quantity of permanently elastic air. c 1700 Newton in Chambers Cycl. s.v., Gunpowder generates air by explosion. 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v., The difference between permanent and transient Air amounts to the same as that between vapour and exhalation. 1774 Priestley (title) ‘Experiments and Observations on different kinds of Air.’ 1789 Howard Royal Encycl. 74 Impregnation of water with fixed air. 1789 Austin in Phil. Trans. LXXX. 55 A jar perforated with brass rods, such as is used for inflaming airs. 1819 Pantol. I. s.v., The different kinds of air, now comprehended under the general term gas. |
3. The whole body of air
surrounding, or in popular language
above, the earth; the atmosphere; hence,
a. the (apparently) free space above our heads, in which birds fly and clouds float. Also, considered as a medium for the operation of aircraft; a collective term for aircraft or aerial power;
esp. in
Comb., as
air arm,
air cover,
air offensive,
air warfare (see below B. III. 2). So
by air, by aeroplane.
| c 1300 in Wright Pop. Sc. 128 Th-eir is swiþe heȝ. c 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 7642 Ane other heven es called þe ayre.. þar þe foghles has flyght. c 1386 Chaucer Sqr.'s T. 114 To fleen as hye in the Air [v.r. ayr, eir, eyre] as dooth an Egle. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. ii. 127 Somme in erþe, somme in aier · somme in helle dupe. 1413 Lydg. Pylgr. Sowle v. i. (1859) 68 By see and land, and in the eyer abouen. 1488 Caxton Chast. Goddes Chyld. 8 The sonne draweth the humours up in to the ayre. 1556 Chron. Grey Friars (1852) 69 Abowte Ester was sene in Sussex three sonnes shenynge at one tyme in the eyer, that thei cowde not dysserne wych shulde be the very sonne. 1611 Bible Eccl. x. 20 A bird of the aire shall carry the voyce. 1652 Needham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. Pref., The Romanes had shut up the Rivers and Lands, and in a manner the very Aër. 1652 Brome Jov. Crew ii. 388 While their sublimed spirits daunce i' th' Ayr. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 553 ¶3 To suspend our coffee in mid-air, between our lips and right-ear. 1808 Scott Marm. vi. xxv, As if men fought upon the earth, And fiends in upper air. c 1840 Longfellow Not always May, The sun is bright—the air is clear, The darting swallows soar and sing. 1917 Ld. Fisher Let. 11 July in R. H. S. Bacon Life Ld. F. (1929) II. xxi. 303 The air is going to win the war. 1919 Daily Tel. 17 Feb. 6/4 (headline) Egypt to the Cape by Air. Ibid. 19 Feb. 12/6 (headline) Heroes of the Air. Ibid. 13/4 (headline) Who Owns the Air? 1944 Picture Post 9 Sept. 8 We'd got the air, we'd got the guns. 1945 Hutchinson's Pict. Hist. War 27 Sept.–13 Mar. 54 Our land-based air was very thin indeed. |
fig.| 1855 H. Reed Eng. Lit. x. (1878) 311 The upper air of poetry is the atmosphere of sorrow. |
b. The
open air: the unconfined space outside buildings, exposed to the weather. Often
attrib.| 1653 Holcroft Procopius i. 20 The brazen Statue of Minerva in the open ayre. 1683 Tryon Way to Health 287 Moderate Exercises in open Airs, which is profitable for all People. 1756 Burke Subl. & B. Wks. I. 193 A greater light than you had in the open air. Mod. An open air meeting; a great open air demonstration. |
c. in the air.
fig. 1.
a. In the moral or intellectual atmosphere of the time, in men's minds everywhere abroad;
b. in an unfixed or uncertain state, in doubt;
colloq. phr. (up) in the air, of persons: in doubt, uncertain; of ideas or theories: speculative, hypothetical;
c. (slang)
up in the air: excited, as in anger (
orig. U.S.). 2.
Milit. (see
quot. 1882). 3.
to build in the air,
form castles in the air: to form unsubstantial or visionary projects; see also
castle.
| 1875 A. W. Ward Hist. Eng. Dram. Lit. I. iv. 325 The appreciation of Shakspere and the dramatic art perceptible in both these great writers was, as the phrase is, in the air,—in the air, i.e., breathed by those who stood on the height of European culture. 1879 Farrar St. Paul I. 642 These expressions and points of view were not peculiar to Philo. They were, so to speak, in the air. a 1884 Mod. The spirit of doubt is in the air. |
| 1752 H. Walpole Let. 28 Oct. (1903) III. 124 Don't look upon this paragraph as a thing in the air. 1797 T. Jefferson Writ. 1859 IV. 186, I consider the future character of our republic as in the air; indeed its future fortune will be in the air, if war is made on us by France. 1910 Galsworthy Justice iv, Keep him in the air; I don't want to see him yet... Keep him hankering. 1933 D. L. Sayers Murder must Advertise viii. 140 You might have let somebody know. I was left rather up in the air this morning. 1940 in Harrisson & Madge War begins at Home v. 107, I didn't hear anything for a long time. They sort of leave you in the air. 1943 W. Temple Let. 8 June (1963) 80 The faith he professes in that book is very much up in the air and devoid both of practical and philosophical attachments. 1956 C. Wilson Outsider ii. 44 The reader is left feeling oddly ‘up in the air’ about it all. No happy finale, no dramatic tying up of loose ends. 1956 Essays in Criticism VI. 193 By modern standards the article is a bit up in the air. |
| 1906 N.Y. Even. Post 13 Jan. 4 Representatives..have..‘gone up in the air’ because they could not ‘land’ their men. 1928 E. Wallace Again Sanders ii. 49 Abiboo, who is a strict Mussulman, got up in the air because Bones suggested he might have been once a guinea-pig. 1930 Punch 21 May 577/3 Why the Prime Minister should have ‘gone up in the air’, as they say, because it appeared in print that Gandhi was about to be arrested..was not revealed. |
| 1865 M. Arnold Ess. Crit. 261 No intelligent man can read the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus..without feeling that, as a speculative work, it is, to use a French military expression, in the air; that, in a certain sense, it is in want of a base and in want of supports. 1882 D. Gardner Quatre Bras, etc. 200 The extreme left of the Allied front..was, in military dialect, ‘in the air’—that is, protruded into the open country, without natural or artificial protection to its outer flank. 1923 Kipling Irish Guards in Gt. War I. p. x, There was hardly an operation in which platoons..brigades, or divisions were not left with one or both flanks in the air. |
| 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, iii. iv. 100 Who builds his hope in ayre of your good Lookes. 1601 Imp. Consid. (1675) 60 Mr. Saunders (building Castles in the Air amongst his Books). 1757 Wesley Wks. 1872 IX. 304 A mere castle in the air. |
d. to give (a person) the air: to dismiss (him); to reject. Also with
get.
U.S. slang.| 1900 G. Ade More Fables in Slang 85 (title) The Fable of why Essie's Tall Friend got the Fresh Air. 1924 P. Marks Plastic Age 202 ‘How about my studies?’ Hugh retorted. ‘I suppose you want me to give them the air.’ 1934 Wodehouse Thank You, Jeeves x. 135 Surely you don't intend to give the poor blighter the permanent air on account of a trifling lovers' tiff? 1949 R. Graves Seven Days in New Crete xvii. 207, I couldn't change her views..nor could she convert me to hers, even when she threatened to give me the air. |
e. to give (a ball) air: in
Cricket, to deliver (a ball) with a high trajectory. In
Rugby Football, etc., to keep the ball constantly in movement.
| 1920 E. R. Wilson in P. F. Warner Cricket 88 Slow bowlers are right to ‘give the ball air’ to a nervous or slow-footed batsman. 1929 Daily Express 7 Nov. 18/7 The ball was given plenty of ‘air’, the pace of the passing and the accuracy of handling a greasy ball reflecting the greatest credit on every one concerned. 1932 Ibid. 20 Sept. 10/2 He is doing what every good footballer seeks to do when the play becomes too close. He is opening up the game by ‘giving the ball fresh air’. |
4. A special state or condition of the atmosphere, as affected by temperature, moisture or other invisible agencies, or as modified by time or place, as the
night air, one's
native air; approaching the senses of
weather and
climate.
| 1479 J. Paston in Lett. 849 III. 265 Ye wyllyd me..to hast me ought of the heyer that I am in..her must I be for a season. 1529 Wolsey in Four Cent. Eng. Lett. 10, I must be removyd to some other dryer ayer. 1583 B. Rich Phyl. & Em. (1835) 13 It was very good for ill Ayres in a mornyng. 1649 Jer. Taylor Great Exemp. ii. §12. 57 The spirits of the body have been bound up by the cold winter ayre. 1656 Hammond Leah & Rachel (1844) 10 Change of ayre does much alter the state of our bodies. 1703 Lond. Gaz. mmmdccccxxi/1 To remove from the Vatican to his Palace at Monte Cavallo, as being a better Air. 1708 Pope Solit. 3 Content to breathe his native air In his own ground. 1765 Churchill Gotham ii. 20 Nor waste their sweetness in the desert air. 1860 W. Collins Wom. in White (1861) 292 As soon as [they]..can travel, they must both have change of air. Mod. Are you afraid of the night air? |
5. The fresh unexhausted air of the outer atmosphere, as distinguished from that exhausted of its oxygen in confined spaces.
| c 1440 Generydes 1984 The Sowdon toke the waye, Owt of the Cite to take the ayre. 1588 Greene Pandosto (1843) 45 The king would go abroad to take the ayre. 1623 Massinger Duke of Milan iii. ii, Say I am rid Abroad to take the air. 1727 Swift Gulliver ii. viii. 163 To give me air in hot weather as I slept. 1745 De Foe Eng. Tradesm. I. x. 83 He goes to take the air for the afternoon. 1813 Jane Austen Pride & Prej. ii. 171 She resolved soon after breakfast to indulge herself in air and exercise. a 1838 L. E. L[andon] May day 200 Clear sky, fresh air, sweet birds, and trees. Mod. The bones crumbled to dust on exposure to the air. |
6. Air contaminated by gaseous exhalations or emanations;
hence, the contaminating exhalations themselves; miasma. (
Cf. It. mal' aria.)
| c 1230 Ancr. R. 104 Þicke eir in hire huse stunch..and strong breð ine neose. 1366 Mandeville xxvii. 276 To voyden away alle wykkede Eyres and corrupciouns. c 1430 Lydg. in Dom. Archit. III. 39 From endengerynge of all corrupcion, From wycked ayre, & from inffexion. c 1538 Starkey England ii. ii. 179 Some corrupt and pestylent Ayre. 1601 Holland Pliny (1634) I. 72 The aire arising out of it so noisom and pestiferous for birds. 1712 Pope Rape Lock ii. 83 Suck the mists in grosser air below. 1861 F. Nightingale Nursing 12 His goods are spoiled by foul air and gas fumes. |
† 7. Exhalation affecting the sense of smell; effluvium, odour, redolence; the ‘atmosphere’ sensibly diffused by anything.
Obs.| c 1430 Lydg. Bochas ii. xiv. (1554) 53 The ayre of meates and of baudy cookes Which all day rost and sede. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. vii. i, Wyth flowres of all goodly ayre. 1523 Ld. Berners Froissart I. ccccxxiii. 741 The kyng disloged fro Rosbeque, bycause of the eyre of the dead bodyes. 1607 Topsell Four-footed Beasts (1673) 133 The Theevish Dog..hunting Conies by the air. |
8. Air in motion; a breeze, or light wind; current, or draught.
| 1535 Coverdale Ezek. xxxvii. 9 Come (o thou ayre) from the foure wyndes, & blowe vpon these slayne. 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. iv. 41 Bring with thee ayres from Heauen or blasts from Hell. 1633 P. Fletcher Purple Isl. 107 When cooler ayers gently gan to blow. 1704 Pope Spring 5 Let vernal airs thro' trembling osiers play. 1836 Marryat Midsh. Easy xxx. 116 Calms and light airs detained them for a few days. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exped. xiv. (1856) 106 To crowd on the canvas, and sail with gentle airs for about two miles. 1879 Froude Cæsar xvi. 267 On a fine summer evening, with a light air from the south. Mod. ‘Sitting right in the air of the door.’ |
† 9. Breath; also
fig.; ‘popular air’ (Horace,
popularis aura), the breath of popular applause.
Obs.| 1590 Marlowe Edw. II, v. iii. 270 But can my air of life continue long. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. v. iii. 77 Still me thinkes There is an ayre comes from her. What fine chizzell could euer yet cut breath..I will kisse her. 1665 J. Spencer Prophecies 114 There being not the least air of any promise of Prophecy made. 1710 Palmer Proverbs 123 A man of a weak judgment is soonest over-set by popular air. 1821 Byron Mar. Fal. i. i. (1868) 315 A whisper, or a murmur, or an air. |
† 10. Hence, Inspiration: confidential or secret information.
Obs.| 1622 Bacon Hen. VII (J.) The airs, which the princes and states abroad received from their ambassadors. 1660 R. Coke Justice Vind. 14 A kind of divine ayre informing men of their truth. |
11. fig. (partly from 3, partly from 8.) Public exposure, publicity, public currency.
to take air: to spread about among people, to ‘get wind.’
| 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. ii. iv. 144 Pursue him now; least the deuice take ayre. 1662 Marvell Corr. 35 Wks. 1872-5 II. 80 The businesse has got a litle too much aire. 1692 R. Lestrange Josephus i. xi. (1733) 571 For fear the Plot should take Air and be disappointed. 1734 tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist. (1827) IX. xx. i. 9 Nothing that passed in the senate..was known abroad or suffered to take air. 1843 Prescott Mexico vi. iv. (1864) 361 Had he suffered his detection..of the guilty parties to take air. 1878 G. Macdonald Ann. Quiet Neighb. vii. 113 He would not make any fuss that might bring the thing out into the air. |
II. [Common in
OFr. e.g. ‘
si se cumbat de grant air,’ ‘
brocha le chevau par grand hair’;
cf. L.
spiritus,
animus.]
† 12. Impetuosity, violence, force, anger.
Obs.| 1297 R. Glouc. 51 As þis schippes with gret eir come toward londe. Ibid. 397 He turnde hys stede wyþ god eyr. c 1300 St. Brand. 161 The Yle quakede anon, And with gret Eir hupte al up. c 1305 St. Edm. 210 in E.E.P. (1862) 76 And his pamerie drouȝ So heȝe & wiþ so gret eir, as he him wolde altodryue; Seint Edmund lay & quakede. |
III. Manner, appearance.
13. Outward appearance, apparent character, manner, look, style.
Esp. in phrases like ‘an air of absurdity’; less commonly of a thing tangible, as ‘the air of a mansion.’
| 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iv. i. 61 The Qualitie and Heire of our attempt Brookes no diuision. 1607 ― Timon v. i. 25 Promising, is the verie Ayre o' th' Time; It opens the eyes of expectation. 1611 ― Wint. T. iv. iv. 755 Seest thou not the ayre of the Court in these enfoldings?.. Receiues not thy nose court-odour from me. 1630 Wadsworth Pilgr. i. 4 For feare the Heretiques of England should..say, he changed his ayre for profit, not conscience. 1647 Jer. Taylor Lib. Proph. §4. 77 Unlesse other mens understandings were of the same ayre—the same constitution and ability. 1692 Dryden St. Euremont 30 Nothing that had the least Air of Acknowledgment. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 5 ¶7 Writing in an Air of common Speech. 1711 Pope Rape Lock Ded., It was communicated with the air of a secret. 1739 Hume Hum. Nat. (1874) I. ii. §i. 334/2 Whatever has the air of a paradox. c 1815 Jane Austen Northang. Abb. (1833) II. vi. 133 The air of the room was far from uncheerful. 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) II. x. 230 The Icon has..all the air of a fictitious composition. 1845 Ford Handbk. Spain i. 25 Some have at a distance quite the air of a gentleman's mansion. 1864 D. Mitchell 7 Stories 201 The postillion gives his hat a jaunty air. 1876 Freeman Norm. Conq. IV. xviii. 232 The story too has in itself a mythical air. |
14. a. Of a person: Mien, demeanour, attitude, gesture, manner, look.
arch.| 1599 H. Porter Two Angry Women (1841) 36 His ayre is pleasant and doth please me well. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. v. i. 129 Your Fathers Image is so hit in you (His very ayre) that I should call you Brother. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 1 ¶5 He is of a noble Family, has naturally a very good air. 1711 Pope Rape Lock ii. 98 Assist their blushes, and inspire their airs. 1714 Budgell Spect. No. 605 ¶8 Married Persons..catch the Air and way of Talk from one another. 1729 Burkitt On N. T. Ded., Unless he sees upon us the Air and Features..of Christ our elder Brother. 1822 Byron Heaven & Earth i. ii, But her air, If not her words, tells me she loves another. |
† b. Disposition, mood.
Obs. rare.
| 1655 H. Vaughan Silex Scint. iii. 233 The short-lived bliss Of air and humour. 1728 Morgan Algiers II. v. 320, I am well acquainted with the very Airs, the innate Disposition of the People. |
† c. Attitude or expression (
of any part of the body).
Obs.| 1640 T. Carew Poems (1824) 104 No colour, feature, lovely ayre, or grace, That ever yet adorn'd a beauteous face. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 98 ¶5 Nature has..given it [the Face] Airs and Graces that cannot be described. 1729 Franklin Ess. Wks. 1840 II. 20 There was something in the air of his face that manifested the true greatness of his mind. 1762 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) II. 151 Admirable is the variety of attitudes and airs of heads. 1768 Sterne Sent. Journ. (1778) II. 4 It..gives a better air to your face. |
d. Mien or gesture (expressive
of a personal quality or emotion).
| 1711 Steele Spect. No. 118 ¶2 Her confident shall treat you with an Air of Distance. 1736 Butler Anal. ii. vii. 355 Determine at once with a decisive air. 1751 Johnson Rambl. No. 144 ¶9 He..excites curiosity by an air of importance. 1802 M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) I. x. 81 He turned from the lady..with an air of disgust. 1826 Disraeli Viv. Grey iii. vii. 118 [He] addressed the Marchioness with an air of great interest. 1853 H. Rogers Eclipse of Faith 195 He tossed off the brandy and water with a triumphant air. |
15. a. An assumed manner, affected appearance, show.
| 1660 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 9 With what an Air did Zeno teach his Wise Men the Contempt of Death. 1796 Campaigns 1793-4 II. xi. 82 The Stadholder's hat was pulled off with an air. 1850 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. iv. 21 Said Aunt Chloe, drawing herself up with an air. 1858 J. Martineau Stud. Chr. 217 That he had given himself the air of a great Apostle. 1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. i. ii. 12 Taking the air of a supercilious mentor. 1878 R. B. Smith Carthage 78 The Senate thought fit to assume the air of those who were conferring a favour and managed to drive a hard bargain with the Syracusan king. |
b. esp. in
pl.| 1704 Addison Italy (1733) 37 Which easily discovers the Airs they give themselves. 1717 Savage Love in a Veil, In France the coquet is rather admir'd for her airs. a 1732 Gay Barley-Mow 1, How many saucy airs we meet From Temple Bar to Aldgate Street. 1734 Fielding Old Man Wks. 1784 III. 132, I must always give myself airs to a man I like. 1742 Richardson Pamela III. 66 What had I to do, to take upon me Lady-airs, and resent? 1853 C. Brontë Villette i. (1876) 6, I hope you mean to behave prettily to her, and not show your airs. 1863 Kingsley Wat. Babies 6 A stuck-up fellow, who gave himself airs. 1876 Black Madcap V. v. 41 You will get cured of all these whims and airs of yours some day. |
c. to put on airs: to assume an unjustified air of superiority.
| 1781 [see put v.1 47 d]. 1832 Deb. Congress 30 Jan. 203, I am aware that, at times, States have attempted to put on airs, and set up their own against federal opinions. 1860 O. W. Holmes Prof. Breakf.-t. v. 93 None of them like too well to be told of it, but it must be sounded in their ears whenever they put on airs. 1952 T. Williams Summer & Smoke ii. i, It is understandable that she might be accused of ‘putting on airs’ and of being ‘affected’. |
† 16. spec. Grand air; stylishness, ‘style.’
Obs.| 1710 Steele Tatler No. 23 ¶1 She complained a Lady's Chariot..hung with twice the Air that her's did. 1816 Jane Austen Emma i. iv. 25, I had no idea he could be so very clownish, so totally without air. |
17. Horsemanship. ‘The artificial or practised motions of a managed horse.’ Chambers
Cycl. 1751.
| 1641 Brooke Eng. Episc. i. ii. 5 Those Horses which are designed to a lofty Ayre, and generous manage, must be of a Noble race. a 1720 Gibson Diet of Horses ii. (ed. 3) 35 He never saw Horses go so well as they, all sorts of Aires, as well for the Manage de Guerre, as in the Leaps. |
IV. In Music [
= musical
mode or modulation].
18. Connected succession of musical sounds; expressive rhythmical sequence of musical tones; song-like music, melody.
| 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. i. i. 183 Your tongue's sweet ayre More tuneable then Larke to Shepheard's eare. 1596 ― Merch. V. v. i. 76 If they but heare perchance a trumpet sound, Or any ayre of musicke touch their eares. 1749 Numbers in Poet. Comp. 32 How is it possible to accommodate the Quantity of the Notes to that of the Syllables, without spoiling the Air and Time of the Tune? 1795 Mason Ch. Mus. ii. 131 By the addition of too much Air by which these Masters deprived Harmony of its absolute supremacy, they robbed Church Music of its ancient solemnity. 1880 Hullah in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 46 In common parlance air is rhythmical melody—any kind of melody of which the feet are of the same duration, and the phrases bear some recognisable proportion one to another. |
19. a. concr. A connected succession of musical sounds in expressive rhythmical arrangement; a piece of music of this nature to be sung or played as a ‘solo,’ with or without a distinct harmonized accompaniment; a melody.
| 1604 tr. Acosta's Hist. Indies vi. xxviii. 493 With these instruments they made many kinds of Aires and Songs. 1656 Cowley Misc. i. (1669) 29 Whilst Angels sing to thee their ayres divine. 1678 Butler Hudibr. iii. i. 919 For discords make the sweetest airs, And curses are a kind of pray'rs. 1684 Lond. Gaz. mdccccxlvii/4 Beginning with an Overture and some Aires for Violins. 1763 J. Brown Poetry & Mus. §12. 200 The Scotch Airs are perhaps the truest Model of artless and pathetic musical Expression, that can be found in the whole Compass of the Art. 1828 Scott F. M. Perth II. 219 The very airs which I have the trick of whistling. 1871 Black Dau. Heth xii. 115 ‘That {oqq}Flowers of the Forest{cqq} is a beautiful air, but you want it harmonised.’ 1880 Hullah in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 47 Technically, an air is a composition for a single voice or any monophonous instrument, accompanied by other voices or by instruments. |
† b. spec. A light or sprightly tune or song.
Obs. (Perhaps due to popular confusion with
airy, or with other sense of
aria in
Ital.)
| 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 180 These and all other kinds of light musick sauing the Madrigal are by a generall name called ayres. 1789 Burney Hist. Mus. (ed. 2) I. vi. 65 The word air, or as the Italians call it Aria, includes a certain piece of music of a peculiar rhythm or cadence. 1880 Hullah in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 47 In the 16th and 17th centuries air represented popularly a cheerful strain. |
20. That part of a harmonized composition for voices, instrument, or instruments, which manifestly predominates and gives character to it (supplying what, if sung or played alone, would be an ‘air’ in sense 19), as distinct from the other parts which form an accompaniment. In part-music this is usually the highest or soprano part.
| 1819 Pantologia I. s.v., Frequently, the principal vocal part is called the air. Mod. The air, which was at first allotted to the violins, was afterwards taken up by the clarionet. If you will sing the air, I will take the tenor. |
† 21. A harmonized melody, a part-song.
Obs.| 1597 Douland (title) The Firste Booke of Songes or Ayres of foure parts with Tableture for the Lute. |
V. In Eastern Church. (See
quot.)
| c 1620 Bp. Andrewes Minor Wks. (1854) 99 A cloth to lay over the chalice, wrought with coloured silk, called the aire. 1850 Neale Eastern Ch. iii. ii. 350 note, The second veil has no distinctive name, but the third is called ἀὴρ or νεϕέλη. |
B. air- in
Comb. I. General relations, in which the hyphen has mostly a syntactical value, and also indicates a main stress on
air-, as
ˈair-ˌbreathing,
ˈair-ˌspun,
ˈair-ˌproof,
ˈair-ˌbubble.
1. objective: with active
pple., as
air-breathing,
air-crisping,
air-defiling,
air-entraining etc., or
obj. gen. with
n. of agent or action, as
air-breather,
air-cleaner,
air-cleanser;
air-condenser.
| 1559 Mirr. Mag. 563 (T.) Air-threat'ning tops of cedars tall. 1647 H. More Song of Soul iii. xxxvi, Air-trampling ghosts. 1839–47 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. III. 910/1 The air-breathers or pulmonary Mollusca. 1847 Carpenter Zool. §619 Air-conveying tubes, known under the name of tracheæ. 1855 Owen Skel. & Teeth 8 Air-breathing vertebrates. 1865 G. M. Hopkins Poems (1948) 37 Let me be to Thee as the circling bird, Or bat with tender and air-crisping wings. 1882 Macm. Mag. XLV. 500 Powerful air-pumping engines. 1926 Lancet 26 June 1292/1 The ‘Deodos’ Air Cleanser. The purpose of this apparatus is to purify and medicate the air of rooms and buildings by means of a vapour. 1929 Times 2 Nov. 4/7 The carburettor is to hand, and there is a useful air-cleaner. 1956 Gloss. Terms Concrete (B.S.I.) 7 Air-entraining agent, an admixture to Portland cement or to concrete which causes a small quantity of air to be incorporated..in the concrete during mixing. 1962 Which? Oct. (Car Suppl.) 139/1 Stones [were] found in air cleaner. |
2. instrumental: with passive
pple., as
air-bred,
air-freighted,
air-spun,
air-swept, etc.
| 1597 Drayton Mortim. 29 Ayre-bred moystie vapors. 1599 Solim. & Pers. iii. in Hazl. Dods. V. 319 Air-bred eagles. 1725 Pope Odyss. ix. 330 Those air-bred people, and thin goat-nursed Jove. 1783 Sir J. Moore Absence ix. 33 Each air-form'd spectre. 1819 Shelley Prom. Unb. (1878) II. 89 How fair these air-born shapes. 1827 Hood Hero & L. xxxii, An air-blown bubble. 1839 Bailey Festus x. (1848) 110 This air-filled bowl. 1851 H. Melville Moby Dick III. xxiv. 159 Rolled in the sea like an air-freighted demi-john. 1853 M. Arnold Scholar-Gipsy in Poems 202 And air-swept lindens yield Their scent. 1901 Guide to Felixstowe (Ward, Lock) 2 It is an air-swept place, this sunny Felixstowe. |
3. similative: as
air-clear (clear as air),
air-pale,
air-sweet,
air-thin,
air-white, etc., and
limitative, as
air-tight,
air-proof.
| 1600 Tourneur Ovid's Met., Prol. 40 Ayre-cleare brightnes. Ibid. xxi. 145 Sacred lights in ayre-cleare azurie. 1879 Spon Worksh. Rects. 369 Waterproof but not air-proof..the great drawback of ordinary mackintoshes. 1918 E. Sitwell Clowns' Houses 11 Each in an air-white crinoline. 1920 ― Wooden Pegasus 73 In air-pale waves. 1938 W. de la Mare Memory 67 A quiet, air-sweet October day. 1942 E. Sitwell Street Songs 31 The air-pale petals of the foam seem flowers. 1948 ― Notebk. W. Shakes. xii. 141 There are echoes..some more air-thin than the sound of which they are a memory. |
4. locative: with
vbl. adj. or
n., as
air-built,
air-dance,
air-fowling, etc.
| 1605 Shakes. Macb. iii. iv. 62 This is the Ayre-drawne-Dagger. 1658 tr. Mouffet's Theat. Ins. 994 The boyes..exercise their air-fowling not without profit and pleasure. 1727 Pope Dunc. iii. 10 The air-built Castle, and the Golden Dream. 1784 H. Walpole in Bk. of Days I. 326, I expect that they [aeronauts] will soon have an air-fight on the clouds. 1843 Miall Nonconf. III. 537 An air-built castle, which dissolves away before the gaze of reason. 1853 Kingsley Hyp. xi. 128 Swallows..began their air-dance for the day. 1882 J. Hawthorne Fortune's Fool i. xii, The air-drawn picture of all the wondrous scenes that were in her memory. 1888 G. M. Hopkins Poems (1918) 68 Cloud-puffball, torn tufts, tossed pillows flaunt forth, then chevy on an air-Built thoroughfare. |
5. attrib. (Composed or formed) of air, as
air-breath,
air-bubble,
air-current,
air-eddy,
air-particle,
air-plume,
air-supply,
air-wave.
| 1600 Tourneur Ovid's Met. (1878) 175 My fearelesse ayre-plume-pen. 1756 F. Home Exper. Bleaching ii. iv. 76 A few hours after it has been there, air-bubbles arise, the liquor swells, and a thick scum is formed. 1765 Brownrigg in Phil. Trans. LV. 220 Air-bubbles adhering to the insides of the bottles. 1774 Goldsm. Hist. Earth I. 34 (Jod.) To break these air-currents into smaller ones. 1827 Carlyle Misc. (1857) I. 11 A distorted incoherent series of air-landscapes. 1851 H. Melville Moby Dick III. i. 21 The air-eddy made by the sudden tossing of a pair of broad flukes. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. §6. 45 The minute air-bubbles which incessantly escape from the glacier. 1877 F. Schumann Man. Heating & Ventilation 18 Air Supply. The following formulæ will demonstrate the necessity of a greater supply of pure air. 1881 Broadhouse Mus. Acoust. 75 Applying the visible motion of water-waves to illustrate the invisible motion of air-waves. 1885 W. B. Yeats in Dublin Univ. Rev. July 136/1 For there came an air-breath cool. 1909 H. G. Wells Tono-Bungay iii. iv. 407 That cold side that gives you the air-eddy I was beginning to know passing well. 1959 E. F. Linssen Beetles I. 112 The larvae of Haliplus..must renew their air-supply at the surface of the water since they breathe through spiracles. |
6. attrib. Of or pertaining to the air, as
air-plant;
air-castle,
-root,
-stone;
air-sylph,
air-world.
| 1817 Coleridge Biogr. Lit. 119 The wings of the air-sylph forming within the skin of the caterpillar. 1888 G. M. Hopkins Poems (1918) 89 How the boys..Are earthworld, airworld, waterworld thorough hurled. 1906 Westm. Gaz. 8 Sept. 13/1 We imagine ourselves stopping in just that way to chat with a friend in the highways of the air-world. |
7. attrib. For the use, reception, passage, of air; as
air-bag,
air-bottle,
air-furnace,
air-gland,
air-receptacle,
air-space,
air-syringe,
air-valve. Also
air-balloon, -bladder, -box, -cell, -chamber, -gun, -hole, -pipe, -pump, -shaft, -vessel; and nearly all those in II. as
air-ball,
-bath, etc.
| 1732 in Cal. State Pap., Amer. & W. Indies 22 Feb. (1939) 230 To lett us know whether air furnaces are allow'd of, because at one of the works there is one built. 1784 Wedgwood in Phil. Trans. LXXIV. 370 Greatest heat of my small air-furnace. 1787 Darwin in Phil. Trans. LXXVIII. 50 A small cell, which is kept free from air by an air-syringe adapted to it. 1836 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. I. 99 The air-bags, for they scarcely deserve the name of lungs. Ibid I. 344/2 Continuous air-receptacles..subservient to the function of respiration. 1859 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. V. 281/2 The so-called air-gland. 1869 Eng. Mech. 22 Oct. 138/2 The pressure of steam..at once closes the air-valve. 1918 Jane's Pocket Aeronaut. Dict. 8 Air-bottle, container for compressed air used for starting big engines. 1941 W. S. Churchill Speech 25 June in Secret Session Speeches (1946) 28 By..somewhat increasing the compressed air-bottle which drives them, they [sc. U-boats] were able to fire volleys of torpedoes. |
II. Special combinations (with quotations in alphabetical order).
air-bag, a bag inflated with air,
esp. one in a motor vehicle, designed to inflate upon impact so as to cushion the vehicle's occupants in a collision, or (
U.S.) one built into a vehicle to improve the suspension; see also
quot. 1836;
air-ball, a ball inflated with air, a toy so called;
air-bath, an arrangement for drying chemical substances; the protracted exposure of the body to the free action of the air as a form of medical treatment (
cf. sun-bath);
air-bed, one with a mattress inflated with air;
air-bell [
bell n.3], a small bubble of air;
spec. one formed in a photographic developer, etc., and appearing as a spot on a plate, film, or paper;
air-blast, a blast of air;
spec. in various technical uses (see
quots.);
air-bloomery (see
quot.);
air-bone, a hollow bone for the reception of air, as in birds;
air-brake, one worked by the pressure of condensed air;
airbrasive a. and n. [
abrasive a.]
Dentistry (see
quots.);
air-break, (
a) [
break n.1 5]
Cricket, a ‘twist’ or deviation in the air, of the ball when bowled; (
b) [
break n.1 17 b]
Electr. Engin.,
attrib. (see
quot. 1910);
air-breathing a., applied to a jet-engine requiring the intake of air for the combustion of its fuel;
air-brick, one perforated for ventilation;
air-brush, a device for spraying colour over a surface by means of compressed air; also as
v. trans., to apply colour, paint, etc., to or (
esp. in
Photogr.) to retouch or (with
out) to obliterate by means of an air-brush; also
fig.; hence
airbrushed ppl. a.;
airbrushing vbl. n.;
air-burst, the bursting of a shell or bomb in the air; hence as
v. intr.;
air-canal (
Bot.; see
quot.);
air-casing, the sheet-iron casing enclosing the base of a steamer chimney, to prevent conduction of heat to the deck;
air-castle, a castle-in-the-air, a visionary or baseless project;
air-cavity, one of the intercellular spaces in water-plants;
air-channel, a channel for the passage of air, in various structures;
air-cock, a stop-cock for letting air out or in;
air-compressor, a machine for compressing air;
air-condenser, an instrument for condensing air in a vessel;
air-cooled a., cooled by means of a current of air; so
air-cool v. trans.,
air-cooling n. and a.;
air-cooler, an apparatus or appliance for reducing the temperature;
air-core,
esp. attrib. (so
air-cored adj.)
Electr., applied to a type of transformer or coil in which the central core consists of an air-filled space instead of a magnetic material;
air-course = airway 1;
air-crossing, a passage or arched way to carry one air-passage over another in a mine;
air-cure, a cure by the use of air,
cf. water-cure;
air-cushion, (
a) one inflated with air instead of being stuffed; (
b) a cushion (
cushion n. 2 a) of air; used
esp. attrib. of a type of craft or vehicle buoyed up by a cushion of air;
air dam, a streamlining device below the front bumper of a vehicle, a front spoiler (
spoiler 3 b); hence
air-dammed a., furnished with an air dam;
air-drain, a covered channel round the external walls of a building to prevent damp, a ‘dry area’; hence
air-drained adj.;
air-drainage (see
quots.);
air-dried a., dried by the action of the air; so
air-dry v.
trans.;
air-driven a., actuated by means of compressed air;
air-dry a., dry to such a degree that on exposure to the air no further moisture is given off;
air-duct, a passage for air,
esp. to the air-bladder of fishes;
air embolism Path., an embolism caused by an air-bubble in the blood-stream;
air-engine, one actuated by the elastic force of heated air;
air-escape, a valve for allowing the escape of air from water-pipes;
air-extractor (see
quot.);
air-filter, an apparatus for extracting extraneous particles, germs, etc., from air;
air-flow, the flow of air,
spec. that encountered by the surface of an aircraft in flight or by a motor-car in motion;
air-fountain, one of which the jet is raised by condensed air;
air-freshener, a substance or device for freshening the air (of a room);
air-gap, a gap or hole through which air passes;
Electr., the air-filled space in a magnetic or electric circuit, as between the poles of a magnet or the terminals of an electrostatic machine;
air-gas, a mixture of air and a vaporous hydrocarbon mixture (
e.g. petroleum), used
esp. as an illuminant;
air-gauge, an instrument for measuring and indicating the pressure of air or gases;
air-glow [
glow n. 2]: see
quots.;
air-grating, a grating or perforated plate for the entrance of air under floors, etc.;
air-hammer, a large hammer moved by compressed air;
air-hardening a. Metallurgy, applied to a metal that can be cooled in air; so
air-harden v.
trans.,
air-hardened ppl. a.;
air-head, -ing (see
quot.);
air-heater (see
quots.);
air-holder, an air-tight vessel or receiver;
air-intake, an inlet or duct for air;
air-jacket, (
a) one with air-tight lining, which, when inflated, supports the wearer in water; (
b) a jacket (
jacket n. 2) in which air or gas is circulated to diminish loss of heat from the enclosed vessel; so
air-jacketed adj.;
air-layering [
cf. layer v. 1]
Hort. (see
quot. 1934);
cf. circumposition;
air-loop (see
quot.);
air-machine, in a mine, a contrivance by which pure air is forced into ill-ventilated parts;
air-mass Meteorol., a body of air of uniform temperature and humidity;
air-mattress, one inflated with air;
air-monger, one who occupies himself with visionary projects;
air-pad, a pad inflated with air;
air-passage, (
a) a passage through which air travels,
e.g. the nasal passages, bronchial tubes, etc.; (
b)
Bot. the large intercellular space in the stems and leaves of some plants;
air-pillow (see
air-cushion);
air-pistol,
† (
a) one in which the propelling power is the explosive force of inflammable gases; (
b) one in which the propelling power is compressed air (
esp. in sport and recreational use);
air-pit, a ventilating shaft in a mine;
airplay, the playing of recorded music (
esp. a ‘pop’ record) over the radio;
cf. play n. IV. 16 b;
air-poise, an instrument for weighing air;
air-port, [
port n.3] a port-hole in a ship for ventilation; also, an aperture for admitting air in a gas-burner;
air-pressure, atmospheric pressure; pressure of air;
air-quake,
cf. earthquake;
air-receiver [
receiver1 5],
spec. a vessel for the storage of compressed air (
Funk's Stand. Dict. 1928);
air-resistance, the resistance of air to a moving body;
air rifle, one actuated by the force of compressed air;
air-road (
= air-way);
air-root, the root of an epiphyte, which hangs free in the air;
air-sac = air-cell;
air scoop, a scoop for diverting the wind (see
quots.);
air-scuttle (
= air-port);
air-seasoned a., of timber
= air-dried; also
air-season v. trans. and intr.,
air-seasoning vbl. n.;
air-ship, one propelled by an air-engine;
air-shot, (
a) a shot in which a batsman, etc., misses the ball and inadvertently strikes only air, a miss; (
b) a recording made from broadcast music;
air-space, a space for the use or passage of air,
e.g. for respiration, insulation, etc. (see
quots.);
air speed, the velocity of moving air or wind;
† air-spring, elasticity of the air;
air-stone, aerolite;
air-stove, one which heats a stream of air passing between its surface and an outer casing;
air-stream, (
a) a current of air,
spec. in
Meteorol.; (
b)
= air-flow;
air suspension, suspension which incorporates air for springing a motor vehicle;
cf. air-bag above;
air-thermometer, one which measures temperature by the expansion of a column of air;
air-threads, the slender threads of the gossamer spider seen floating in the air;
air time, time allotted for broadcasting (something) on radio or television;
air-trap, a contrivance for preventing the escape of foul air from sewers, etc.;
air-tube, (
a) a tube designed for the passage of air,
spec. spiracle; (
b) the inner tube of a pneumatic tyre;
air-tunnel = wind-tunnel;
air-twist, a spiral used for decorative effect in the stem of a wine-glass; so
air-twisted adj.;
air-volcano, an eruptive orifice from which volumes of gas are discharged with mud and stones;
air-washer (see
quot. 1949);
air-wave, an atmospheric wave as of compression, rarefaction, or progression;
air wheel, a balloon-tyre (see
quots.);
air-whistle,
cf. steam-whistle. Also in various names of instruments or apparatus actuated by the elastic force of compressed or heated air (often
= ‘pneumatic’), as
air-cylinder,
air-drill,
air-locomotive. Also
air-lift 1.
| 1836 *Air-bag [see air- I. 7]. a 1877 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 769/1 An india-rubber air-bag. a 1884 Ibid. Suppl. 12/2 Air bags for raising sunken ships. 1948 ‘N. Shute’ No Highway vii. 175 There's no equipment here to lift an aircraft of this size. We've got no air bags. 1970 Guardian Weekly 5 Sept. 16/3 Volvo engineers are a little worried that the airbag..will be imposed on them before their own very detailed examination of its value and feasibility has been completed. 1971 M. Tak Truck Talk 1 Air bag, a device on tag axles that utilizes air pressure in the suspension system. 1983 Truckin' Life July 64/2 The truck came fitted with steel leaf springs on the steering axle and full airbags on the tandem. 1984 Guardian 22 Oct. 22/8 The clearly defined degree of protection universally provided by a lap-and-diagonal seat belt is complemented by a mini airbag in the steering wheel boss. |
| 1869 Eng. Mech. 24 Sep. 29/2 The India-rubber coloured *air-balls, which are sold at fairs. 1881 M. E. Braddon Asph. I. 17 Children..flying gaudy-coloured air-balls. |
| 1791 Boswell Johnson (1887) III. 168 He..walked in his room naked, with the window open, which he called taking an *air bath. 1885 Buck's Handbk. Med. Sci. I. 467 It is often desirable not to employ too much water, but to expose the body freely, giving an air bath. 1959 Encounter Oct. 48/2 Seven minutes air-bath in the shade; four minutes in the sun; then a shower. |
| 1859 W. Gregory Egypt & Tunis II. 204 We were lent two *air-beds by friends. |
| 1815 *Air-bell [see bell n.3]. 1889 Anthony's Photogr. Bull. II. 143 Carbon Printing in Winter... The difficulty I experienced in avoiding air bells. 1945 T. H. Savory Spiders Brit. Isles (ed. 2) 53 As winter approaches the spider hibernates. Either it closes the mouth of its air-bell or it finds an empty shell..and fills it with air. 1962 Gloss. Terms Glass Industry (B.S.I.) 38 Air bell, a bubble of irregular shape formed..in the manufacture of optical glass. |
| 1889 Cent. Dict., *Air-blast. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXIII. 422/1 In..air-blast transformers, apertures are left in the core by means of which the cooling air can reach the interior portions. 1946 H. P. Young Electr. Power Syst. Control (ed. 2) vii. 194 Air-blast breakers can be classified into three main types depending upon the manner in which the compressed air is directed at the arc. |
| 1845 North Brit. Rev. IV. 128 An *air-bloomery..was dependent, for its blast, upon the varying currents of air that played around the hill on which it was placed. 1860 W. Fordyce Hist. Coal 110 The first smelting furnace..was undoubtedly the Air-Bloomery, a low conical structure, with small openings at the bottom for the admission of air, and a larger orifice at the top for carrying off the gaseous products of combustion. |
| 1855 Owen Skel. & Teeth 7 The extremities of such *air-bones present a light, open net-work. |
| 1872 Rep. Comm. Patents 1871 I. 253 Westinghouse, George, Jr.,..Valve device for steam-power *air-brake couplings. |
| 1945 R. B. Black in Jrnl. Amer. Dental Assoc. XXXII. 956/2 The *airbrasive process employs for its action a very fine—almost pinpoint—stream of compressed air into which a suitable finely divided abrasive agent has been introduced. 1953 I. Glickman Clin. Periodontology xxxix. 665 Airbrasive which consists of fine abrasive powder (Dolemite in a stream of carbon dioxide) is used for removing surface deposits from the teeth. |
| 1900 Cricket 29 Mar. 41/3 There is no necessity to mention Noble's *air-breaks any more. 1910 Hawkins's Electr. Dict. 6/2 Air Break Switch, a type of switch designed to break the circuit in the open air or in an enclosed air space, as distinguished from an oil break switch. 1958 B.S.I. News Aug. 16 Heavy-duty composite units of air-break switches and fuses for voltages not exceeding 660V. |
| 1956 in G. Merrill Guided Missile Design, Operations Res. III. i. 374 Pulsejet engines will initiate pressure waves of considerable energy, and the relatively long time it takes to warm-up an *air breathing engine forces consideration of the effect of heat in the exhaust gases. 1964 Economist 7 Mar. 891/2 Manned aircraft powered by air-breathing jets. |
| 1889 Cent. Dict., *Air-brush. 1901 Brit. Jrnl. Photogr. 1 Nov. 696 The ærograph [read aero-] is probably better known to the majority of photographers as the air-brush. 1916 ‘B. Cable’ Doing their Bit iv. 58 The quick and even painting of the shells by air-brush spray. 1934 H. Hiler Notes Technique Painting iii. 241 It may then be varnished..preferably with an air brush. 1941 J. C. Tobias Man. Airbrush Technique xxii. 116 Having transferred the design to illustration board, proceed to airbrush it. Ibid. xvii. 89 Airbrushed borders are often effective in giving a card distinction. 1953 O. R. Croy Retouching 165 Air brushing allows the photographer to concentrate on..the subject..without worrying over..unfavourable surroundings. Ibid. 169 (caption) Photographs are air brushed with the help of masks. 1967 Life (Atlantic ed.) 30 Oct. 76/3 They..seldom miss an opportunity to show the expanses of both sexes once discreetly turned away from the camera or airbrushed out of view. 1983 Times 28 Sept. 6/6 Argentina had attempted to airbrush out the fact that it had broken off from the negotiating process. 1984 Science 6 Apr. 44 While viewing the material on the video monitor, the operator..can ‘electronically airbrush’ it to remove blemishes or add artifacts. |
| 1917 ‘Dixhuit’ Artillery Experience v. 62 *Air-bursts of shrapnel are conspicuous. 1946 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. L. 486/1 This particular rocket..air burst over Sweden. 1950 in Effects of Atomic Weapons (Los Alamos Scient. Lab.) ii. 30 The brownish or peachlike tint of the cloud which has been reported, particularly in the Bikini ‘Able’ airburst, is apparently due to nitrogen dioxide. |
| 1857 Henfrey Elem. Bot. §734 *Air-canals are long tubular channels, in petioles, or stems, bounded by a cellular wall. |
| 1795 T. Wilkinson Wand. Patentee I. 22 By attempting a visionary comparison, which has just now struck my *air-castle imagination. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. (1858) 32 High Air-castles cunningly built of Words. 1839 W. Irving Wolf. Roost (1855) 217 Golden fancies, and splendid air-castles. |
| 1840 C. Howard Farming at Ridgemont 140 A tunnel is formed by placing a wooden pipe..exactly over the centre of the *air-channel. 1927 Haldane & Huxley Animal Biol. iv. 96 These contain air-channels..which run within the bodies of elongated cells. |
| 1800 Henry Epit. Chem. (1808) 56 Glass jars..provided with *air-cocks. |
| 1874 *Air-compressor [see compressor 1 g]. 1892 P. Benjamin Mod. Mechanism 17 The Norfolk Compound Air-Compressor. 1908 Westm. Gaz. 21 July 4/2 An..ingenious air-compressor, specially designed for use on motor-vehicles. |
| 1899 Motor-Car World I. 59/1 An *air-cooled Aster motor of 21/4 h.p. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 1 Apr. 4/1 The seven cylinders of the Gnome..when they are revolving at a high speed..will be very efficiently air-cooled. 1914 E. A. Powell Fighting in Flanders iii. 73 The Lewis gun..is air-cooled. 1935 Economist 18 May 1141/1 A number of these aircraft are fitted with Rolls Royce engines, but the Gloster ‘Gauntlet’..is equipped with an air-cooled engine. 1962 Which? Jan. (Car Suppl.) 4/1 Air-cooled: relies on fan-driven air, not water-filled radiator. |
| a 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 34/2 Shaler's *air-cooler. |
| 1865 N. S. Shaler U.S. Pat. 47,991 (title) *Air Cooling Apparatus. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 25 Mar. 2/2 The designer has adopted the expedient of revolving the cylinders en bloc around fixed cranks, whereby he is enabled to successfully adopt air-cooling. 1909 Ibid. 9 Sept. 4/3 The sparking plugs, which are provided with air-cooling ribs. |
| 1894 Phil. Mag. XXXVII. 405 The *air-core transformer used for the experiment consisted of two coils wound one inside the other. 1906 A. Russell Alternating Curr. II. viii. 231 The ideal air core transformer, that is, the air core transformer the resistance of the primary coil of which is zero. 1953 Amos & Birkinshaw Television Engin. I. x. 265 (caption) Air-cored coils.., iron-cored.., Ferrite-cored. |
| 1882 Imp. Dict., *Air-course. 1937 Times 6 Feb. 8/5 Work on 14's face should have been stopped at least until a return air-course, far removed from the intake and leading directly to the main return, had been made. |
| a 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. 15/1 *Air-crossing (Mining), an arch built over a horse-way or other road, with a passage or airway above it. 1911 Act 1 & 2 Geo. V, c. 50 §42 (3) All air-crossings shall..be so constructed as not to be liable to be destroyed in the event of an explosion. |
| 1876 L. Tollemache in Fortn. Rev. Mar., Whether the fault lies both with the *air-cure and with the iron-cure. |
| 1836–7 Dickens Sketch. (1850) 182/1 An easy chair with an *air-cushion. 1960 Aeroplane XCIX. 770/1 This new craft has, in fact, been designed to enable operators to obtain practical experience with air-cushion craft ‘in the field’. 1962 New Scientist 19 Apr. 79/2 The air cushion of the VA-3 is derived from peripheral and intersecting slots. 1965 Guardian 5 Jan. 3/3 Air cushion vehicles—or hovercraft, if you prefer the term. |
| 1974 Daily Tel. 3 July 12/3 The large *air dam at the front and the spoiler on the boot lid presumably serve some aerodynamic purpose. 1984 Ibid. 7 Mar. 14/5 Ventilated disc brakes are now fitted to all four wheels with the air dam being re-designed to allow a cooling flow to front brakes. |
| 1976 Scotsman 24 Dec. 11/1 Inside the *air-dammed, aerofoiled saloon car challenger, there's a BMW trying to get out. |
| 1843 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. IV. 357 An *air drain round the building is, in damp situations, highly useful. 1848 Ibid. IX. 341 No indications of wetness appeared on the two air-drained pieces. |
| 1944 Geogr. Jrnl. June 252 Valleys and basins are more frosty, depending again on the degree to which the relief and other factors permit *air drainage from extensive uplands inland. 1948 White & Renner Human Geogr. iv. xx. 340/2 At night the air, which is cold and therefore heavy, drains down the slopes settling in the lower elevations. Hence danger of frost is least at the head of the piedmont plain and greatest at its foot. This..is known as air drainage. |
| 1889 Cent. Dict., *Air-dried. 1891 W. Schlich Man. Forestry II. iv. 248 The Ash yields an excellent timber, hard and heavy, specific gravity when air-dried = ·75. 1908 Chambers's Jrnl. July 543/1 Peat which can be air-dried to such an extent that only some 25 per cent of moisture is retained. a 1912 Paper Terminol. (Spalding & Hodge) ii. 1 Airdried..is applied to hand-made and exceptionally good machine-made writings and brown papers, when dried slowly by exposure to a uniform temperature. |
| 1897 Daily News 1 Nov. 7/1 The *air-driven hydraulic pump. |
| 1856 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XVII. i. 194, I..then allowed it to become *air-dry, by keeping it for some days in a safe place, in a heated room. 1949 Gloss. Terms Timber (B.S.I.) 13 In Great Britain the moisture content of air-dry timber may range between 14..and 23 per cent according to the season of the year and the species of timber concerned. |
| 1870 Rolleston Anim. Life 75 The presence or absence of an *air-duct to the air-bladder. 1873 Dawson Earth & Man v. 100 In the bony pike..there is an extremely large air-bladder..communicating with the mouth by an air-duct. |
| 1890 Billings Med. Dict. I. 32/2 *Air embolism, the presence of free atmospheric air within the vascular system during life in sufficient quantity to give rise to symptoms of obstruction. 1905 Lancet 9 Dec. 1738/1 (title) Death of a Diver from Air Embolism. |
| 1873 B. Stewart Conserv. Force iv. 105 The steam-engine, the *air-engine, and all varieties of heat engines. |
| 1936 Archit. Rev. LXXX. p. lviii/1 The removal of smells from kitchens, of steam from bathrooms and of smoke from smokerooms is well worth while and there are a number of *air-extractor devices on the market that deserve the consideration of the architect. |
| 1861 J. Stenhouse (title) The successful application of Charcoal *Air-Filters to the ventilation and disinfection of Sewers. a 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. 15/2 Air Filter, a protective ventilator consisting of a cloth interwoven with thin brass wire to act as a filter for the air. 1927 Daily Tel. 10 Feb., Motor manufacturers are urged to provide air-filters on all motor vehicles. |
| 1911 R. M. Pierce Dict. Aviation 16 *Air-flow, the flow or movement of the air. 1915 Aeronautics 17 Nov. 327 Let us first see wherein mainly the behaviour of the air flow and its resistance differ from that prevailing in the case of a flat plane. 1935 Discovery Oct. 309/1 The occasional opening of doors is quite inadequate for regulating the air flow [in a film studio]. 1940 E. C. Shepherd Britain's Air Power 18 The bomber began to take on a load of ice it had not expected—ice on the edge of the wing to spoil its shape and interfere with the air⁓flow. 1961 P. Strevens in Papers in Lang. & Lang. Teaching (1965) xi. 134 If the breath-stream is forced to pass through a narrow constriction, the air-flow becomes turbulent. 1962 D. Slayton in Into Orbit 22 When you are re-entering the atmosphere..you must get the capsule into a position where its blunt end is pointed straight down into the airflow. |
| 1949 Good Housekeeping (N.Y.) Nov. 135/1 Have you ever used an *air freshener—a special product that camouflages unpleasant odors with clean countrylike scents? 1960 Guardian 22 Feb. 6/7 An air-freshener in aerosol form. 1962 Which? Mar. 90/1 There are a great many air fresheners on the market, which claim to ‘dispel’, ‘kill’, ‘neutralise’ or ‘suppress’ unwanted smells. |
| 1848 Mrs. Gaskell Mary Barton xvi, *Air-gaps were to be seen in their garments. 1899 R. Routledge Discov. & Inv. 19th C. (ed. 13) 541 A stout wire interrupted by an air gap in its centre provided with small brass balls. 1902 How to make Things 3/2 A miniature flash of lightning breaks through the insulating air-gap between the balls or oscillators. 1942 C. A. Cotton Geomorphology (ed. 3) vi. 73 The former gorge, or water gap, through this stratum is now no longer traversed by a stream, and becomes an ‘air gap’. |
| 1873 Pract. Mag. II. 399/1 *Air Gas Machine..an improved apparatus for forcing air in uniform quantities into a carbureter. 1879 Encycl. Brit. X. 101/2 This air-gas is now largely used both in America and Europe for lighting mansions, churches, factories, and small rural districts. 1909 Chambers's Jrnl. June 411/1 The application of what is generically termed ‘air-gas’ to domestic uses is one of far-reaching possibilities. |
| 1841 Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl. IV. 13/1 The..instruments employed..to determine the pressure of the steam,..namely, the barometer-gauge, the *air-gauge, etc. |
| 1951 J. G. Vaeth 200 Miles Up ii. 26 *Air glow, which is a term applied to the light of the night sky (excluding starlight and moonlight), lends itself to spectroscopic examination and has been found to contain light emissions characteristic of nitrogen, oxygen, and sodium. 1958 Sci. News XLVIII. 12 One effect of the normal Sun on the atmosphere..is the production of the faint emission from the atmosphere at night which is called the night airglow. |
| 1914 H. Brearley Case-Hardening of Steel vi. 72 The surface of the *air-hardened steel is less hard than that of water or oil quenched steel. 1930 Engineering 23 May 680/3 Steel A was air-hardened from 950 deg. C after soaking for 20 minutes. |
| 1906 E. R. Markham Amer. Steel Worker (ed. 2) 278 The steel hardens when..exposed to the air. It is styled ‘*Air Hardening Steel’, more generally known, however, as Self-Hardening Steel. |
| 1839 Murchison Silur. Syst. i. xxxvi. 490 Ventilation is effected by means of *air-heads driven through the fault. 1881 R. Raymond in Trans. Amer. Inst. Mining IX. 99 Air-head, or Air-heading, S. Staf. A smaller passage, driven parallel with the gate-road, and near its roof, to carry the ventilating current. It is connected with the gate-road at intervals by openings called spouts. |
| a 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 49/1 *Air-heater, a stove or furnace so arranged as to heat a current of passing air, for warmth or ventilating purposes. 1944 Gloss. Terms Gas Ind. (B.S.I.) 34 Air heater, an appliance designed to heat spaces by the forced circulation of large volumes of warmed air. |
| 1806 Davy in Phil. Trans. XCVII. 12, I filled it with hydrogene gas from a convenient *airholder. |
| 1918 Jane's Pocket Aeronaut. Dict. 8 *Air intake pipe, a pipe fitted to the carburetter or induction system through which only air is drawn. 1922 Encycl. Brit. XXX. 26/2 (caption) Air Intake [in a wind tunnel]. 1931 T. E. Lawrence Let. 14 July (1938) 729 Scoop-tubes like air intakes thrust through the floor amidships. 1958 Times 19 June 6/3 He had been sucked into the air intake of a jet engine. |
| 1909 Westm. Gaz. 4 May 4/2 An engine having specially designed *air-jackets. 1936 Techn. Rep. Aeronaut. Res. Comm. 1934–35 I. 19 A wind tunnel investigation has been made of an air-jacketed engine. |
| 1900 L. H. Bailey Cycl. Amer. Hort. II. 894/2 In a conservatory, merely a ball of sphagnum bound around the branch with twine will serve an equally good purpose... This kind of propagation is known as *air-layering. 1934 Webster, Air layering, a form of propagation, employed with certain plants whose branches cannot be brought to the ground for layering, in which a portion of a branch or stem, sometimes girdled, is kept covered, as by wrapping with moist soil, moss, or the like, until it forms roots and may be detached from the parent and planted... The process is specified as pot layering when the rooting medium is enclosed, as in a pot or box, and as marcottage, or Chinese layering, when the ball of earth or moss is merely tied about the stem. 1957 M. Free Plant Propag. vi. 183 In air-layering a suitable shoot is selected, the stem is wounded by removal of a cylinder of bark..where it is desired that roots should form. |
| 1757 Smeaton in Phil. Trans. L. 202 On the north and south side, are two narrow windows or *air-loops. |
| 1855 Leifchild Cornwall Mines 282 The underground boys work the *air-machines. |
| 1893 F. Waldo Mod. Meteorol. iv. 318 If a swiftly moving *air mass moves into a quiet mass of air, then the resistance is considerable. 1942 W. G. Kendrew Weather xii. 65 Air mass is the term applied to a part of the atmosphere large enough to play an appreciable part for a period of at least some hours in the meteorology of any region. |
| 1949 M. Mead Male & Female xi. 240 A hunting-trip with an *air-mattress. |
| 1627 Feltham Resolves i. xv. Wks. 1677, 25 Thou *Airmonger, that with a madding thought, thus chaseth fleeting shadows. 1876 Trans. Clinical Soc. IX. 23 An *air-pad was applied to the tumour. |
| 1836 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. I. 345/1 The air-passages in birds. 1878 Rankine Steam Engine (ed. 9) 459 Air Passages—Blowing Apparatus—Chimney. 1911 Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 199/2 A foreign body in the air-passages may be impacted above the vocal cords. |
| 1779 Ingenhousz in Phil. Trans. LXIX. 398 The compound of the two airs in the *air pistol takes fire. 1855 Brit. Pat. 2,422 1 This invention relates to certain improvements on the ordinary air pistols used as toys for children. 1872 Ann. Rep. U.S. Patent Office Comm. Patents 1870 II. 107/1 Air-Pistol. Reuben Brooks, Jr., Rockport, Mass. 1936 H. Nicolson Let. 5 May (1966) 260, I do not quite like the idea of Ben being such an old cautious cissie as to refrain from shooting policemen with air-pistols. 1975 Oxf. Compan. Sports & Games 922/1 For air pistol shooting, the aiming mark contains scoring rings for points valued 10 to 7, surrounded by six more rings with score values from 6 down to 1 point. 1986 Target Gun Aug. 27/1 It is said that Richard Wang put in 5,000 shots in training with air pistol [sic] the week before he broke the British record. |
| 1709 T. Robinson Nat. Hist. Westmld. v. 30 If the Miners should not open their *Air-Pits and keep their Thurling-Ways clear. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 969 These air-pits do not in general exceed 7 feet in diameter. |
| 1966 Guardian 7 June 9/3 We cannot conscientiously recommend such records for *airplay. 1976 Sounds 11 Dec. 31/1 If this fine song doesn't get the airplay it deserves I shall be very cross indeed. 1983 Listener 10 Feb. 11/2 The chart rounds.., ironically, are created by continual airplay. |
| ? 1667 Sprat Hist. R. Soc. III. 363 (T.) Small mutations of the air..insensible by the more common *airpoises. |
| 1788 A. Falconbridge Acct. Slave Trade 24 Most of the ships..are provided, between the decks, with five or six *air-ports on each side of the ship. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 28 Air-ports, large scuttles in ships' bows for the admission of air, when the other ports are down. 1944 Gloss. Terms Gas Ind. (B.S.I.) 33 Air port, the aperture in an aerated burner adjacent to the injector through which primary air is admitted to the mixing tube. |
| a 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 50/2 Gruber's *air-pressure filter. 1946 Nature 9 Nov. 674/2 Using air-flow through a capillary to regulate the air-pressure difference. 1965 W. S. Allen Vox Latina 7 Ceteris paribus, stressed sounds produce greater intensity of air-pressure. |
| 1746 Berkeley in Fraser Life viii. (1871) 318 We are not to think the late shocks merely an *air-quake (as they call it). 1750 Phil. Trans. XLVI. 700 A certain ingenious gentleman would not allow the last shock of an Earthquake in London to be an Earthquake..but rather calls it an Airquake, because it was lateral. 1891 Daily News 13 Oct. 5/4 General Dyrenforth's experiments in rain-making by means of explosions, or what he calls ‘terrific airquakes’, have not convinced his scientific opponent. 1950 D. Gascoyne Vagrant 28 Till all night's spark-sprayed dome is stunned with quick air-quakes of gold. |
| 1951 Gloss. Terms Plastics Ind. (B.S.I.) 34 *Air receiver, (a) an accumulator or storage vessel charged with compressed air or inert gas used in a high pressure hydraulic system as an alternative to a weight-loaded accumulator; (b) an accumulator or storage vessel used as a reservoir in pneumatic systems. 1959 B.S.I. News Apr. 3 The welding of air receivers is likely to be separately discussed by a group of experts on welding and may become the basis for welding of pressure vessels as a whole. |
| 1901 Sci. Amer. 9 Feb. 82/2 Light has recently been thrown upon the question of *air resistance of railway trains. 1908 Aeronautics Mar. p. xviii, Trials of a cellular aeroplane..have demonstrated that weight is a less important factor than air-resistance. 1936 Discovery Feb. 40/1 To diminish air-resistance by the streamlining of both engine and train. |
| 1902 Sears, Roebuck Catal. (ed. 112) 298/2 Quackenbush Improved Nickel Plated *Air Rifle..$4.35. 1958 Daily Tel. 30 June 15/8 A girl was injured by an air rifle. |
| 1866 Morn. Star 18 Dec. 6/2 We went down the *air road, thinking that we might be able to get to the shaft that way. |
| 1863 H. W. Bates Riv. Amazons ii. (1864) 29 The *air-roots of epiphytous plants, which sit on the boughs of the trees above. |
| 1836 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. I. 37/2 The *air-sac [of the Physalus]. 1879 Wright Anim. Life 4 The air-tubes of the lungs do not end in air-sacs. |
| 1919 W. B. Faraday Gloss. Aeronaut. Terms 55 *Air Scoop, a projecting cowl, which, by using the dynamic pressure of the relative wind or slip stream, serves to maintain air pressure in the interior of the envelope. 1920 Flight XII. 663/2 In Italy the British method of supplying air to the ballonets through airscoops fitted in the slipstream of the propellers is never used. 1929 Daily Express 1 Jan. 6/3 The air-scoops projecting from every porthole in a vain attempt to manufacture a breeze with the ship's motion, fail to fulfil their functions. |
| 1748 Anson Voy. i. iv. (ed. 4) 50 The Commodore ordered six *air-scuttles to be cut in each ship. |
| 1917 J. B. Wagner Seasoning of Wood x. 151 The wood is allowed to *air-season for several months to a year. Ibid. 154 The present methods of air-seasoning in use have been determined by long experience. 1919 H. S. Betts Timber v. 150 A kiln is used also when partially air-seasoned or even fully air-seasoned material is to be dried further. 1930 Forestry IV. 36 In air-seasoning both the temperature and humidity of the available air are dependent on local climatic conditions. |
| 1855 W. Boyd New York Pred., It ploughed gently the sea..the *air-ship of Eric. |
| 1956 R. Alston Test Commentary xix. 176 Surridge set the tone with a number of *air-shots against Davidson. 1956 M. Stearns Story of Jazz xix. 254 The combination of..Cuban and jazz drummers was electric and air shots of the session are now collector's items. 1963 Times 19 Jan. 3/3 He reached the first drop shot only at its second bounce. But having got over this and an air shot which followed soon afterwards he settled down to give a demonstration which was too much for the South African. 1976 Gramophone Dec. 952/3 The sound quality..leaves a lot to be desired—the tracks are all air-shots from between 1937 and 1940. 1986 Golf World July 157/3 Would it have been a different story if Hale Irwin had not had an air shot in the third round as he went to tap in a one-inch putt to lose by just one shot? |
| 1889 Cent. Dict., *Air-space. 1893 Dunglison Dict. Med. Sci. (ed. 21) 32/1 Air space, space filled with air from rupture or other injury to air-cells. 1900 Lancet 11 Aug. 458/1 That this conference approves that the standard of air space for dwellers in cities and large towns be raised to 500 cubic feet for every adult and to 250 cubic feet for each child under 10 years of age. 1936 Discovery June 197/2 It appears that the dielectric constant is lower in the case of those organs having much fatty tissue and air-spaces such as the bones and lungs. 1957 Archit. Rev. CXXI. 213 Rust⁓proof rails swing out, cabinets are double cased (airspace insulation) in zinc coated steel. |
| 1922 Encycl. Brit. XXX. 27/1 The larger Eiffel tunnel gives an *air speed of 40 metres per second. |
| 1660 Boyle Exp. Phys.-Mech. i. 27 An account plausible enough of the *Air-spring. |
| 1608 Let. in Wright Dict., They talk of divers prodigies..but specially *air-stones. 1879 Warren Astron. vi. 123 These are called aerolites or air-stones. |
| 1869 Hartwig Polar W. 308 Soon the Polar *air-streams regain their supremacy. 1913 J. C. Hunsaker tr. Eiffel's Resistance of Air & Aviation 239 Stability was verified by suspending the model [aeroplane] in the air stream upon a horizontal axis. 1922 Encycl. Brit. XXX. 27/1 The experimental section of an Eiffel type wind tunnel consists of an air stream as it crosses an open room from wall to wall. 1958 Times 23 Sept. 11/4 His pilgrimage coincides with the fair example of a wet, westerly airstream. 1961 New Scientist 16 Mar. 672/1 Such a cooling mechanism [for rockets] is superior..because a liquid is simply swept away in the air-stream. 1961 L. F. Brosnahan Sounds of Language i. 2 The conversion of some of the kinetic energy of this airstream into acoustic energy. |
| 1960 Buses Illustr. June 197/1 Following the prototype *air-suspension vehicles, four such models are now in production. 1980 Truck & Bus Transportation Feb. 62 One of the good things about air suspension is its ability to provide a constant vehicle riding height under any conditions of static loading. |
| 1806 Davy in Phil. Trans. XCVII. 47 A small *air-thermometer capable of being immersed in the gold cones. 1871 Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (ed. 6) II. xvi. 451 Incompetent to..affect the most delicate air-thermometer. |
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., *Air-threads are not only found in autumn, but even in the depth of winter. |
| 1955 *Air-time [see sense 1 c]. 1968 Melody Maker 30 Nov. 7 On radio there are only two programmes giving air time to the music. 1984 Listener 16 Feb. 28/3 Breakfast television could still be selling the sort of airtime appeal that means good business. |
| 1826 Kirby & Spence Entomol. III. xxx. 154 The two prolegs, which M. Latreille thinks are *air-tubes. 1847 Carpenter Zool. §619 The air-tubes of insects. 1877 Engineering 16 Nov. 381/3 The air-tube of a diver's dress. 1894 Work 315/2 Repairing Air-tube of 1892 Dunlop. 1953 J. S. Huxley Evolution in Action iii. 75 [The insects] breathe by means of air-tubes, which convey oxygen direct to the tissues. |
| 1933 Jane's Fighting Ships 26 A 1/4 inch scale model was prepared for testing in the *air-tunnel at the National Physical Laboratory. |
| 1897 A. Hartshorne Old Eng. Glasses 58 The beaded stems, out of which the *air twists were derived, continued to be made in Holland. Ibid., Air-twisted stems of various kinds. 1903 Burlington Mag. III. 63/1 The secret of the construction of two of the classes—namely, the brilliant, and the combined opaque and air-twist—seems to have been lost. 1916 J. S. Lewis Old Glass 62 The air-twist probably began with a ‘tear’. |
| 1879 Geikie in Encycl. Brit. X. 250 Certain remarkable orifices of eruption..to which the names of mud-volcanoes, salses, *air-volcanoes, and macalubas have been applied. |
| 1905 Lancet 25 Feb. 507/2 The Stellite Air Deodoriser..is an effectual *air-washer and as such it may obviously have numerous hygienic applications. 1949 Gloss. Terms Refrig. (B.S.I.) 4 Air washer, a water-spray system or other device for cleaning air, capable of serving also as a cooler, humidifier, or dehumidifier. |
| 1879 W. James in Jrnl. Speculative Philos. XIII. 85 Notwithstanding the brilliant conjectures of the last few years which assign different acoustic end-organs to different rates of *air-wave, we are still greatly in the dark about the subject. 1881 Air-wave [see air- I. 5]. 1895 H. Lamb Hydrodynamics Index, Air-waves, effect of viscosity on. |
| 1930 Flight XXII. 404/1 The *Air Wheel..is revolutionary in design, and, as its name implies, the cover has the dual function of a tyre and wheel, being a full balloon cover mounted directly on a hub attached to the 'plane undercarriage. 1932 Times 29 Feb. 17/5 A new tire for small cars has been introduced... It is known as the air wheel and is based on aeronautical experience. |
| 1870 W. Boyd Morse Alph., Telegraphy by steam-whistle, *air-whistle, musical instrument, or light. |
III. Of or pertaining to aircraft.
1. In numerous combinations (tending to supersede
aerial) relating to locomotion in the air by means of aircraft, as
air drill,
air navigation,
air pageant,
air service [
service n. 32],
air traffic; carried or conducted by aircraft, as
air parcel,
air photography (also
air-photo(graph)),
air post,
air survey,
air tour (so
air-tourist);
air-flying,
air-launched,
air-portable (so
air-portability),
air-sailing adjs.; also,
air-bridge, (
a) a link between points provided by air transport; (
b) at an airport, a portable covered bridge to enable passengers to cross directly between the terminal and an aircraft;
air carrier = aircraft carrier;
air circus [
cf. circus 2 d], a squadron of aeroplanes; an air display, an air pageant;
air Derby, see
Derby 1 d;
air edition, see
airmail b;
air ferry, an aircraft or system of aircraft for the conveyance of passengers and goods;
airfoil U.S. = aerofoil;
air freight, freight conveyed by air; also as
v. trans.; hence
air-freighting vbl. n.;
air fuelling, the refuelling of one aircraft by another in flight;
airgraph (also
Airgraph), a form of airmail registered by Kodak Ltd., in which the correspondent's letter is photographed on a reduced scale; a letter so transmitted;
air hog,
cf. road hog (
road n. 12 and
road hog);
air letter, a letter conveyed by air,
esp. one written on a folding form of special design;
air-mark v. trans. (see
quot. 1929); hence
air marker,
air-marking;
air-mast, a mast to which airships are moored;
air mile, a nautical mile used as a measure of distance flown by aircraft; hence
air mileage;
air-minded [
minded ppl. a.]
a., interested in or enthusiastic for the use and development of aircraft; so
air-mindedness;
air miss (see
quots.);
air plot (see
quot. 1951);
air-pocket, a local condition of atmosphere, as a down current or sudden change of wind velocity, which causes an aircraft to lose height suddenly; also
fig.;
air position, position in the air, (
a) for tactical purposes [see
position n. 7 c]; (
b) that an aircraft would have reached if the flight had been in motionless air; also
attrib.;
airscape, a view taken from the air (
cf. scape n.3);
air-sea rescue, applied to a branch of the Royal Air Force, whose task is to rescue airmen and passengers from the sea, and to such operations;
air sense,
cf. road sense (
road n.);
air-sick a. [after
sea-sick a.], sick from the motion of an aircraft; hence
air-sickness;
air space, airspace, the air considered as a medium for the operation of aircraft;
air speed, the velocity of an aircraft (or of anything flying,
e.g. a bird) in relation to the air through which it is moving; also
attrib. and as v. trans., to convey (mail, etc.) by air; hence
air-speeded ppl. adj.;
air terminal, (
a) the terminal point of an air-line, also called
air terminus; (
b) the town office of an air-line, equipped for the reception of passengers;
air-to-air a., from one aircraft to another; so
air-to-ground,
air-to-surface adjs.;
air traffic controller, one who is responsible for regulating the movement of aircraft,
esp. into and out of an airport.
| 1939 Baltimore Sun 17 Apr. 9/1 The New Zealand service will constitute the air line's second ‘air bridge’ of the Pacific. 1948 Newsweek 9 Aug. 27/1 The Berlin ‘air bridge’—as the Germans call it—claimed its first American victims on July 9. 1976 Times 17 May 12 Access to the aircraft from the beehive [sc. a passenger terminal] was through canvas tunnels, the forerunners of today's movable air bridges. 1981 Telegraph (Brisbane) 17 Feb. 13/1 The airbridge..gives direct access from the aircraft to the terminal. |
| 1920 Proc. Air Conf., London 99 Air carriers were designed and commissioned towards the end of the war. |
| 1932 Flight XXIV. 1227/1 His ‘Air Circus’ carried 250,000 passengers. 1933 Aeroplane 18 Oct. 690/1 The accident arose from a collision..during an air circus. 1940 D. Wheatley Faked Passports viii. 94 After the Armistice he [Goering] was ordered to surrender the planes of his famous air-circus to the Americans. |
| 1932 Flight XXIV. 584/2 A squadron of ‘Furies’ was given just 15 minutes in which to show off their air drill. |
| 1916 Aerial Age Weekly 11 Sept. 793 (heading) Air Ferry over Great South Bay. 1932 Flight XXIV. 933/1 The daily air ferry services between Shoreham, Portsmouth and Ryde. |
| 1912 C. M. Doughty Clouds 119 Their air-flying enemies. |
| 1922 N.A.C.A. (U.S.) Rep. Nomencl. Aeronaut. 621 Airfoil. 1930 Flight 29 Aug. 972/2 The addition of an airfoil fuselage. |
| 1929 Aerial A.B.C. Feb.–Apr. 19 The conditions for air freight services apply to all goods which are accepted by an air traffic company. Ibid. May–July 41 Luggage can also be forwarded as air freight. 1959 W. D. Pereira North Flight ix. 143 Make sure that box is air-freighted to-night. |
| 1947 Aircraft Engin. Jan. 27/1 Now..that civil air freighting is upon us..the problems involved in the efficient handling of freight must be tackled. |
| 1937 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XLI. 285 Air fuelling offers another alternative, but the large aerodrome..seems the simplest of all methods of increasing the economy of air transport operation. |
| 1941 Engineer 2 May 296 To meet the need for cheapening and expediting homeward postal communication from the British Forces in the Middle East, the Post Office is introducing an airgraph service. 1941 Sphere 6 Dec. p. i, Airgraph letters should be written in black ink. 1945 Comment from Italy (Three Arts Club) 41 For weeks now there had been little for him,—just an occasional Airgraph,—nothing more. 1955 H. & A. Gernsheim Hist. Photogr. 254 The airgraph service which operated between 1941 and 1945, in which by modern microfilm methods myriads of messages were flown between families in England and the fighting services in the four corners of the world. |
| 1909 Westm. Gaz. 9 Feb. 4/1 Pointing out how the flying-machine is likely to violate every international law and rudely trespass on every private right and privilege, characterising the intrepid navigators as air-hogs and human vultures. |
| 1949 A. R. Weyl Guided Missiles 108 The most powerful air-launched missile of its kind. 1951 Jrnl. Brit. Interplanetary Soc. X. 217 The ‘Skyrocket’..adopted the technique of air-launching from a B.29. |
| 1920 Flight XII. 781/2 Threepenny air-letter postage between London and Amsterdam, with the prospect of a similar charge to Paris, is getting a little nearer sanity. 1951 Oxf. Jun. Encycl. IV. 17/1 An air letter is written on a special form supplied by the Post Office. This is made of thin paper and impressed with a sixpenny stamp. |
| 1929 Times 12 Mar. 12/2 Thousands of cities and towns throughout the States have been ‘air-marked’ by civic and trade associations. During last year one oil company alone painted names on 4,200 stations... These markings, together with a standardized system of indicating obstructions, such as high tension cables..have proved a very valuable aid to air pilotage. 1948 Shell Aviation News No. 117, 5/1 An extensive air-marking programme along Skyway One is now under way. Ibid. No. 122, 4/2 The Civil Aeronautics Administration is sponsoring a programme for air marking cities, towns and villages throughout the country. An air marker is a sign on rooftop or ground, visible from the air, which enables a pilot to orient himself when lost. |
| 1927 Daily Tel. 1 Nov. 10/6 The selection of a site on the south side of the St. Lawrence for the erection of an Imperial airmast. |
| 1919 Sphere 6 Dec. p. viii/1 Fifteen hundred air miles at 107 m.p.h. 1945 Yorks. Post 19 Apr. 1/1 Nulde, 20 air miles east of Amsterdam. |
| 1948 Jrnl. Inst. Navig. I. 63 The aircraft's fuel consumption..must be balanced against savings in air mileage. 1951 Gloss. Aeronaut. Terms (B.S.I.) iii. 10 Air-mileage unit, an instrument which derives continuously and automatically the air distance flown, and feeds this function into other automatic instruments. |
| 1928 Daily Express 20 June 8/3 At last, I believe, people are becoming ‘air-minded’. |
| 1927 Glasgow Herald 2 Nov. 13 The expansion of aviation systems and the spread of a sense of ‘airmindedness’. 1930 Flight 3 Jan. 4 That great wave of airmindedness that followed Lindbergh's transatlantic flight. |
| 1960 Guardian 10 Nov. 1/5 The new Minister did not explain..the exact technical significance of an ‘air-miss’... (The Air Ministry says it is ‘rather like a near miss on the ground’). 1962 UK ‘Air Pilot’ p. RAC 35 Whenever a pilot considers that his aircraft may have been endangered by the proximity of another aircraft during flight..he should make an airmiss report. |
| 1871 Ann. Rep. Aëronaut. Soc. 62 The minds of many thinking men have been, during the present century, turned to this interesting subject of air navigation. |
| 1927 Air Dec. 55/2 The first Birmingham Air Pageant. |
| 1928 Aerial A.B.C. Apr. 20 Air parcels may be posted at any District or Branch Post Office. |
| 1919 Geogr. Jrnl. LIII. 330 (heading) Air Photography in Archaeology. Ibid., Had I not been in possession of these air-photographs the city would probably have been merely shown by meaningless low mounds. 1920 Flight XII. 233/1 The achievements of air photography during the War were very remarkable. 1923 Geogr. Jrnl. LVII. 359 Here two air-photos will certainly reveal the course of undiscovered Roman roads. Ibid. 363 The field archæologist has much to gain in future from an alliance with the air-photographer, particularly in England. 1959 N. & Q. CCIV. 1/1 From air photographs Dr. St. Joseph was able to show the size and shape of Roman fields in the Fenlands. |
| 1942 D. C. T. Bennett Compl. Air Navig. (ed. 4) v. 172 The Air Plot Method is similar in principle..but instead of flying on one constant course only, a number of courses may be followed. 1951 Gloss. Aeronaut. Terms (B.S.I.) iii. 6 Air plot, a continuous plot of true heading steered and air distances flown. |
| 1913 C. Grahame-White Aviation v. iv. 155 A lessening of pressure—or what is more familiarly known as an ‘air pocket’. 1933 Boys' Mag. XLVII. 24/2 We shall probably bump a bit, owing to air-pockets. 1967 Economist 18 Mar. 1033/1 Restoration of the tax credit of 7 per cent of the cost of new investment..had been all but inevitable in order to avoid the problem of the ‘air pocket’— a drying up of orders during the months before restoration was due. 1977 Time 14 Nov. 32/1 Almost all of them fear that the economy will run into an air pocket during the second half of next year. |
| 1959 Times 16 Jan. 10/5 The British idea was to develop an air-portable gun for both roles. 1959 Star 19 Feb. 9/5 Mr. Christopher Soames, Secretary for War, coined a new watchword today for Britain's all-regular Army of the future—air portability. |
| 1917 F. A. Collins Air Man vi. 140 The English had not chosen their battlefield, or rather air-position, and thus fought at a disadvantage. 1937 D. C. T. Bennett Compl. Air Navig. v. 154 The difference of the air position so obtained in relation to the ground position (i.e. the departure point) is the wind effect for the total time. 1945 Sci. Amer. June 349/1 One of the recently revealed secrets..is the ‘air position indicator’, an instrument that..gives continuous readings of latitude and longitude plus a continuous record of nautical air miles flown. |
| 1911 Daily Mail 11 Sept. 3/4 (heading) First Air-Post. Ibid., An air post cannot be expected as yet to behave with the same clockwork regularity as an earth post. 1919 Liverpool Jrnl. Commerce 20 Nov. 6/4 Within the past few months regular air post services have sprung into being. |
| 1897 Aeronaut. Ann. 92 The..care needed in making changes in an air-sailing machine. |
| 1921 Flight XIII. 193 (caption) Winter in Switzerland: An airscape of the popular resort, Davos. |
| 1941 Flight XXXIX. 361/1 The various rescue services..have been co-ordinated under one central control known as the Directorate of Air/Sea Rescue Services. 1941 J. A. Hammerton ABC of RAF (ed. 2) 74 Abbreviations of Titles and Terms employed by the R.A.F... A/SRS. Air Sea Rescue Service. 1942 Aeroplane 13 Nov. 562/3 A Supermarine Walrus of the Air-Sea Rescue Service alighted on the sea in the middle of a German minefield. 1958 Times 10 July 15/2 The manufacture..of..inflatable liferafts and other air-sea rescue aids. |
| 1919 Conquest Dec. 65/1 The successful execution of aerial acrobatics involves the possession..of that indefinable quality which, for want of a better word, we will call ‘air-sense’. |
| 1919 Sphere 1 Nov. p. x/3 Outside the R.A.F. there were no records of a daily air service to guide the Avro company in organising such an undertaking. 1922 Daily Mail 8 Dec. 12 An 1,800 miles air service from Copenhagen to Brindisi is being planned. |
| 1785 F. Farley Bristol Jrnl. 14 May in N. & Q. (1938) CLXXV. 79/1 Air sick. 1873 Air-sick [see airman]. 1908 H. G. Wells War in Air vii. §1 Even the air-sick men flushed and spoke. 1958 G. Greene Our Man in Havana iii. ii. 123, I suppose he's feeling air-sick again. |
| 1784 H. Walpole in Bk. of Days (1863) I. 325 If there is no *air-sickness..I would prefer a balloon to the packet boat. 1908 H. G. Wells War in Air vii. §2 For a time he was not a human being, he was a case of air-sickness. |
| 1911 R. Wallace in Grahame-White & Harper Aeroplane xiii. 289 A State should have full dominion in the air space above its territory. 1959 Listener 19 Mar. 512/1 Persia protests to U.S.S.R. that Russian aircraft have violated her air space eighty-one times in past three months. 1961 New Scientist 20 Apr. 103/2 It is generally agreed that national sovereignty in the so-called ‘airspace’ is limited to some level above the Earth's surface. |
| 1910 R. Ferris How it Flies 453 Air-speed—the speed of aircraft as related to the air in which they are moving; as distinguished from land-speed. 1912 Aeronautics Dec. 391/1 It is possible with an air-speed indicator to read..how far one is above this danger point. 1937 D. C. T. Bennett Compl. Air Navig. v. 165 The following abbreviations are acceptable for use in Navigation Logs..A/S = Air Speed. 1941 E. C. Shepherd Military Aeroplane 17 Height and forward speed..are shown on a sensitive altimeter and on an airspeed indicator. 1942 Gen 15 July 50/1 Watch that airspeed! Eleven hundred and you're levelling out. |
| 1959 Time 9 Mar. 9/2 The magazines are air-speeded each week to every corner of the globe. 1976 Early Music Oct. 522/2 (Advt.), All prices include dispatch; USA copies by air-speeded post. 1981 Nature 19 Mar. p. x (Advt.), Order Form... Please send me The Lancet each week for one year... {pstlg}40.00 overseas (Airspeeded). |
| 1918 Times 6 Dec. 12/2 (headline) An Air Survey..Surveying the country by means of aerial photographs. 1924 O. G. S. Crawford (title) Air Survey and Archæology. 1925 Flight XVII. 735 (title) Air surveying. 1933 Discovery Feb. 57/1 Air surveying is used extensively by the United States Geological Survey for the preparation of topographic maps. |
| 1921 Aircraft Yr. Bk. 79 The principal communities which are situated along this air route should create thoroughly modern air terminals. 1935 C. G. Grey in N. Tangye Air is Our Concern i. 10 Though Hounslow Heath was actually the first London Air Terminal, it was given up because it was on the wrong side of London. 1956 Times 2 Feb. 5/1 A temporary air terminal will be erected on the platform to take those services now being handled at B.E.A.'s Waterloo air terminal. |
| 1919 Sphere 10 May 108/1 The air terminus for London is Hounslow. |
| 1941 Flight XL. 48 f/2 Drogue targets for air-to-air gunnery training. 1955 Sci. News Let. 26 Mar. 197/3 The Air Force has unveiled its newest guided missile..described as the ‘only air-to-air missile with a {oqq}brain{cqq} of its own’. 1957 Times 22 Aug. 6/6 Air-to-air guided missiles on wing-tip launchers. |
| 1942 Hutchinson's Pict. Hist. War 10 June–1 Sept. 135 (caption) A..high-wing monoplane..has proved useful for reconnaissance and air-to-ground co-operation by the British. |
| 1958 C. C. Adams et al. Space Flight 51 Next to nothing is known about air-to-air or air-to-surface rockets, though a few surface-to-air missiles are known. |
| 1923 Daily Mail 29 Jan. 13 (heading) Air tours at a penny a mile. 1929 Punch 20 Mar. 326/3 The Minister is satisfied that before many months we air-tourists will be taking our twelve-day flips to Kenya. |
| 1912 H. E. Richards Sovereignty over Air 4 We must consider the principle on which the relations of States are to be conducted with regard to air traffic. 1933 Flight XXV. 524/2 (heading) Air Traffic Control. 1951 Oxf. Jun. Encycl. IV. 381/2 The advent of the fast, all-weather aircraft, and the demand for frequent and regular services, have made it essential to establish strict rules for air-traffic control. |
| 1956 USAF Dict. 39/1 Air traffic controller, an aircraft controller..responsible for providing air traffic control. Often shortened ‘controller’. 1973 [see traffic controller s.v. traffic n. 6]. 1979 Arizona Daily Star 5 Aug. a10/3 He told air-traffic controllers he would try to land at Hays. |
| 1929 Lancet 12 Jan. 105/2 The facilities offered by air transport to patients travelling abroad. 1946 in Amer. Speech (1948) XXIII. 76 Air transportability. |
| 1879 P. Brannon (title) The air-boat for arcustatic air-travel. 1923 G. Collins Valley of Eyes Unseen 326 The great strides recently made in the art of air-travel. 1963 New Yorker 8 June 96 Showcase is air-travel light. |
| 1951 L. MacNeice tr. Goethe's Faust ii. Act ii. p. 205 She departs. Enter, above, the air-travellers. |
| 1908 Westm. Gaz. 1 July 12/1 Thirteen persons who made a successful air-trip from the Champ de Mars. 1959 Elizabethan Apr. 5/3 The chance of an air-trip overseas. |
2. Pertaining to the air as a sphere of offensive or defensive operations, as
air alert,
air attack,
air-bombing (also
air-bomber),
air defence,
air observation,
air offensive,
air reconnaissance,
air strike,
air support,
air supremacy,
air warfare; used of a bomb, missile, etc., discharged from an aeroplane, as
air bomb,
air torpedo; also,
air control, control of an area by means of air power (in
quot. 1915
spec. to give the correct range for artillery fire);
air cover, protection by aircraft during a military operation;
air-drop (chiefly
U.S.), the landing of troops or supplies by parachute; also as
v. trans. and intr.;
air-head,
cf. beach-head;
air mine (see
quots.);
air power, power of defensive and offensive action dependent upon a supply of aircraft, missiles, etc. (
cf. sea-power 2);
air umbrella, a force of aircraft used to give air protection to a military operation;
air warden (see
air-raid).
| 1941 Times Weekly 5 Feb. 2/3 In spite of air alerts and privations, the population have not lost their courage. 1959 Times 18 May 7/2 The reason why Strategic Air Command does not maintain an air alert, with aircraft carrying nuclear weapons in the air twenty-four hours a day. |
| 1914 Sphere 26 Dec. 318/1 The possible air attack over London. 1915 Grahame-White & Harper Aircraft in Gt. War v. ii. 172 Air attacks on cities have appeared despicable largely because they are so new. |
| 1941 N. Macmillan Air Strategy xiv. 109 A true conception of the object of the air blockade. |
| 1914 Sci. Amer. 15 Aug. 113/2 (heading) The Air Bomb. 1915 Grahame-White & Harper Aircraft in Gt. War v. ii. 172 The Germans..were prepared to use every instrument..drifting mines, air bombs. a 1930 D. H. Lawrence Last Poems (1932) 54 And most murderous of all devices Are poison gases and air-bombs Refinements of evil. |
| 1929 F. P. Gibbons Red Napoleon (1930) viii. 198 American field guns..became the target of air bombers and low flying combat 'planes. 1934 Flight XXVI. 141/2 The idea of air bombing, which General Groves and..his supporters are trying to popularise. |
| 1915 Grahame-White & Harper Aircraft in Gt. War vi. ii. 271 It was certainly unfortunate for the Germans that, as their air control for artillery grew less effective, that of the Allies should have begun to reach its full efficiency. 1930 Flight 3 Jan. 1 These are the air control of Iraq and the Air Defences of Great Britain. |
| 1942 Hutchinson's Pict. Hist. War 10 June–1 Sept. 245 Our bombers and fighters thrust fiercely into the attack, affording continuous and effective air cover to our attacking forces. |
| 1916 Sphere 26 Feb. 207/1 (heading) The Problem of Air Defence. 1922 Encycl. Brit. XXX. 87/1 Air defence..deals with the arrangements which deny to enemy aircraft access to vulnerable points. |
| 1949 Britannica Bk. of Year 687/1 Airdrop, that which is dropped from an airplane, such as supplies. 1950 Baltimore Sun 29 Apr. (edition B*) 1/7 D-day of the exercise was marked by the biggest of peacetime airdrops. 1958 N.Z. News 1 July 4/1 An airdrop of prefabricated sections for ten bivouacs..was made by the New Zealand Forest Service. |
| 1951 A. M. Ball Compounding & Hyphenation 23/2 Air-drop, v. 1955 Time 3 Oct. 29/2 The U.S. International Cooperation Administration this month began air-dropping 1,000 tons of rice to the 100,000 peasants who inhabit the region. 1966 H. Harrison Plague fr. Space iii. 33 We had airdropped in during the night. |
| 1941 N. Macmillan Air Strategy xv. 128 Long range air escorts..to protect the fleets of bombers. |
| 1784 Air-fight [see air- I. 4]. 1908 H. G. Wells War in Air ix. §3 The devastation and ruins of the greatest air fight in the world. |
| 1944 Amer. N. & Q. Sept. 84/2 Airhead, the counterpart, in air action, of beachhead; used by Major Eliot F. Noyes..speaking before the Soaring Society of America, Aug. 5, 1944, in referring to the behind-German-lines base established by Allied gliders during the Normandy invasion. 1945 Times 1 Mar. 5/6 Two large ‘air-heads’ each with two transport strips and one light plane strip were built between Kalemyo and the river. |
| 1944 Times 18 Mar. 4/7 A big-scale exercise with paratroops, air-landing units, [etc.]..was in progress. |
| 1914 Sci. Amer. 15 Aug. 114/1 The aerial mine is inferior to the sea-mine not only in its vulnerability to currents, but also in its visibility...Against..these handicaps the air-mine can oppose only its cheapness and lightness. 1939 War Weekly 202/3 A German sketch visualising the use of air mines against aeroplanes. The sketch shows a swarm of hydrogen-filled balloons released during an air-raid. Each balloon has hanging from it a chain with a mine attached. 1943–4 Hutchinson's Pict. Hist. War 27 Oct.–11 Apr. 26 Among the vast armada that was sent up against the invading force of bombers was a special squadron which towed air mines... The effect..was to catch the American aircraft in the tow ropes or destroy them by the blast from the mines. |
| 1923 Kipling Irish Guards in Gt. War I. 30 Artillery fire, directed by air observation. |
| 1944 Times 5 Jan. 3/1 Some of the credit for the flexibility and accuracy with which our superior weight of guns is used must go to our ‘air o.p.’ (observation post) squadrons... I have seen the little ‘air o.p.’ circling over the enemy lines. |
| 1915 Grahame-White & Harper Aircraft in Gt. War vii. i. 295 (heading) Strategy of an Air Offensive. 1944 Ann. Reg. 1943 29 The British air offensive against Germany..set up a new record. |
| 1923 Kipling Irish Guards in Gt. War I. 57 The days of the merciless air-patrols had yet to come. |
| 1908 H. G. Wells War in Air iii. §5 The immense aeronautic park that had been established..to give Germany..the air power and the Empire of the world. 1909 in F. T. Jane All World's Air-Ships 327/3 ‘Air power’ can hardly be more than one of many factors in deciding the issue of future wars. 1940 Economist 11 May 851/2 The superiority of air power over sea power. |
| 1915 Grahame-White & Harper Aircraft in Gt. War i. ii. 25 An air reconnaissance would have told him that Blücher..was actually marching north. |
| Ibid. ii. iv. 47 (heading) Air-Scouting and Tactics. 1945 Times 3 May 3/3 Destroyers of the East Indies Fleet bombarded airfields..and followed this up with an air strike. |
| 1944 T. H. Wisdom Triumph over Tunisia xvii. 143 The function of what [Air Marshal] Coningham now called the Air Striking Force. |
| 1935 Burge Compl. Bk. Aviation 553/2 A deliberate attempt was made by both sides to gain air superiority. |
| 1941 Aeronautics Oct. 49/2 Fortunately the Royal Navy has never completely neglected the importance of air support to naval forces. |
| 1916 Sphere 29 Jan. 109 (heading) The latest German attempt to challenge British air supremacy. 1940 E. C. Shepherd Britain's Air Power 7 On an Army front air supremacy is essential to success in these days. |
| 1874 ‘Mark Twain’ & C. D. Warner Gilded Age I. xviii. 233 Colonel Sellers..was the inventor of the famous air-torpedo. 1916 Illustr. War News 8 Mar. 6/1 (caption) A French air-torpedo caught in a tree over a German trench. |
| 1941 Hutchinson's Pict. Hist. War 14 May–8 July 138 They slink along from port to port under the protection of their air umbrella. |
| 1915 Grahame-White & Harper Aircraft in Gt. War v. xiv. 252 The axiom that ‘might is right’ may apply very forcibly to the air wars of the future. |
| 1916 Fortnightly Rev. XCIX. 1062 Air warfare on the scale indicated..opens up possibilities in the way of air raids for landing considerable bodies of men. |
3. Of that branch of a country's armed forces which fights in the air, as
air arm [
cf. fleet n.1 1 d],
air armada,
air cavalry,
air fleet,
air service; also,
air force, a military or naval force organized for conducting operations in the air; that part of the military forces of a country (in Great Britain, the Royal Air Force) which consists of officers and men with aircraft and other necessary equipment; so in titles of officers, as
air commodore,
air (vice-)marshal [see
marshal n.],
air officer; of non-commissioned ranks, as
air-gunner (hence
air-gunnery),
air mechanic; also
air council,
air ministry (see
quot. 1959),
air-scout,
air staff;
air-bomber, a bomb-aimer;
Air Training Corps (
abbrev. A.T.C.), an organization for the training of cadets for the Royal Air Force;
Air Transport Auxiliary (see
quot.). For
air crew,
pilot see 4; see also
airman.
| 1917 Flying 19 Sept. 129/2 Why not remove the ‘air arm’ at once from ‘the naval and military control’? 1940 E. C. Shepherd Britain's Air Power 7 The Navy has its own air arm designed to work with the ships of the Fleet. |
| 1917 Flying 31 Oct. 225/2 The disaster which befell the German air armada. |
| 1911 Times 25 Feb. 7/3 The Balloon School is being reorganized and will be transformed into an Air Battalion. |
| 1943 Hutchinson's Pict. Hist. War 17 Feb.–11 May 101 We now group pilots, navigators and air bombers together on entry into the Service. 1944 Times 8 July 2/2 As the air-bomber takes his aim he [etc.]. |
| 1917 ‘Contact’ Airman's Outings 203 We shall see a great extension of ground attacks by air cavalry. 1965 Observer 11 July 2/5 The United States is about to reinforce its troops in Vietnam with a new high-powered ‘air-cavalry’ division. |
| 1919 Flight XI. 1044 His Majesty..has approved of new titles for the commissioned ranks of the Royal Air Force..Air Commodore. 1920 Ibid. XII. 113/1 The chair will be taken at 8 p.m. by Air Commodore E. M. Maitland. |
| 1917 Act 7 & 8 Geo. V c. 51 An Act to make provision for the establishment, administration, and discipline of an Air Force, the establishment of an Air Council, and for purposes connected therewith. |
| 1908 H. G. Wells War in Air iv. §3 The German airfleet. 1946 A. Lee German Air Force ii. 19 The Luftwaffe was organized territorially into Air Fleets (Luft-flotten). There were four immediately before the war. |
| 1917 Air force [see air council]. 1918 Flight 6 June 605/1 ‘The Air Force Cross’, to be awarded to officers and warrant officers for acts of courage. Ibid., ‘The Air Force Medal’, to be awarded to non-commissioned officers and men for acts of courage. 1920 Act 10 & 11 Geo. V c. 76 §11 (2) Where possession is reasonably required for naval, military, or air force purposes. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. I. 185/2 The view that an air force should be free to operate independently or that it should have equal status to the land and sea forces is predominantly an Anglo-American conception. |
| 1928 R.A.F. Regulations Amendm. List July 3 Airmen selected for employment as air gunners will be required initially to qualify at a short course of air gunnery. 1944 Times 11 Apr. 4/4 Air gunners reported they shot down 43 enemy fighters. |
| 1917 Flying 18 July 480/3 Second-Lieutenant Fletcher warmly commended the gallant conduct of First Air Mechanic Merritt. 1928 C. F. S. Gamble North Sea Air Station i. 39 The term ‘air mechanic’ is in use, though no such naval rating really exists. By air mechanic is meant a man who has been through a course of training either at the Central Flying School or at Eastchurch. |
| 1916 Flight VIII. 112/1 (heading) An Air Ministry at last. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. I. 197/2 Air Ministry is the department responsible in the United Kingdom for the organization and direction, under the minister of defence, of the Royal Air Force. |
| 1920 Act 10 Geo. V c. 7 §11 (3) The expression ‘air officer’ means any officer above the rank of group captain. 1963 Times 16 Apr. 12/3 Air Vice-Marshal T. N. Coslett has been appointed Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, R.A.F. Maintenance Command. |
| 1939 War Illustr. 11 Nov. 282/3 Officers of Air Rank. |
| 1914 Times 24 June 4/1 The Royal Naval Air Service..will form part of the Military Branch of the Royal Navy... A certain number [of officers] will..be selected to fill the higher posts in the Air Service. |
| 1911 R. M. Pierce Dict. Aviation 19 Air-scout, a scout who operates in the air; an aerial observer. 1914 Illustr. War News 19 Aug. 43 (caption) The value of the air-scout: military entrenching viewed by an airman from a height of about 1000 feet. |
| 1922 Times 17 Jan. 11/5 He thought him an officer very likely to become one day Chief of the Air Staff. 1940 Air Staff [see fleet n.1 1 d]. |
| 1941 Times 10 Jan. 2/3 It is proposed to establish an Air Training Corps to provide pre-entry training for candidates for air crew and technical duties. 1941 Flight XXXIX. 57/2 The birth of the A.T.C. |
| 1939 Ibid. XXXVI. 373/2 The units have been strengthened by..groups of pilots from..Air Transport Auxiliary. A.T.A. was originally formed by British Airways for..assisting the regular airline people to maintain communications during and after the expected full-scale bombing attacks on this country. |
| 1919 Air Vice-Marshal [see marshal n.]. |
4. Of persons engaged in the flying, operation, or maintenance of aircraft, as
† air-boy,
air-girl,
air navigator (in
quot. 1834
transf.),
air pilot,
† air-sailer (-or),
air stewardess; also,
aircrew, (
a) the crew of an aircraft (
pl. -crews); (
b) used
collect. in pl. (
-crew): the members of such a crew;
air hostess, a stewardess in a passenger aircraft;
airman;
airwoman (see
airman). See also 3.
| 1873 Cassell's Mag. VIII. 134/1 We saw two air-boys leaning over the side of the car. |
| 1921 Flight XIII. 477/1 The two University air crews are staying there. 1939 Aeronautics Aug. 5/1 A source of trained men from which the Volunteer Reserve could draw for air-crew training purposes. 1940 Times Weekly 27 Nov. 6 It is one of the great merits of the R.A.F. curriculum..that it turns out air crews of which every member can at a pinch take over the work of any other. 1948 Daily Tel. 29 May 2/4 The job of the Training Wing is to train ‘Air Crews’, a new form of R.A.F. entry, introduced, I gather, in 1946. 1955 Times 25 May 11/7 It has been quite impossible for many young married pilots and aircrew to make proper provision for their dependents. 1955 Times 21 July 4/6 While finding that there was nothing in the aircrew's tour of duty to cause undue fatigue, the report urges that B.O.A.C. should consider some limitation of hours of duty of an aircrew at an airport. 1957 J. Braine Room at Top vi. 54 I'd learned to drive in the RAF: I'd shared an Austin Chummy with three of the aircrew. 1977 R.A.F. News 5–18 Jan. 2/1 The OCU..has trained about 7,000 aircrew of 13 air forces throughout the world. 1984 Aviation Week & Space Technol. 24 Sept. 93/2 The software provides connected-word recognition, which allows aircrews to control a number of cockpit functions by spoken command. |
| 1928 Daily Express 20 June 1/3 All first impressions vanished... The boyish airgirl [sc. Miss Earheart] became a feminine woman. 1945 P. Larkin North Ship 14 The Polish air⁓girl in the corner seat. |
| 1934 Baltimore Sun 6 Feb. 22/1 The air hostess was the overnight guest of Captain and Mrs. W. O. Schrum. 1936 N.Z. Herald 24 Mar., A knowledge of nursing is essential for an air hostess..for the experience of handling people. 1939 Flight 14 Dec. 490/1 The K.L.M. has found it wiser to employ stewards rather than Air Hostesses on the London line. 1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 17 Oct. 598/4 The unanimity with which air hostesses give as their reason for choosing this profession the desire to meet people and see distant places. |
| 1834 Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. v. in Fraser's Mag. IX. 306/1 A hapless Air-navigator, plunging, amid torn parachutes, sand-bags, and confused wreck, fast enough, into the jaws of the Devil! 1915 Sphere 20 Feb. 198/1 A well developed system of meteorological reports can be of such help to the air navigator. |
| 1913 Stamp Collecting 27 Sept. 27/2 The provisional air pilot was arguing with the Republican officials. 1918 E. Wallace Tam o' the Scouts 211 (title) Aircraft by ‘An Air Pilot’. 1923 J. W. Simpson Ess. & Mem. 169 The confident courage that inspires air-pilots. |
| 1834 Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. v. in Fraser's Mag. IX. 306/1 The thunderstruck Air-sailor is not wanting to himself in this dread hour. 1897 Aeronaut. Ann., Scientific value of flying models, The air-sailer who..adds the thrust of a screw to the forces he is accustomed to deal with. 1908 H. G. Wells War in Air vii. §5 Then Bert..had his first experience of the work of an air-sailor. |
| 1936 Punch 9 Dec. 646/1 To Chloe, an ‘Air Stewardess’. My Chloe rides the heavens in a roaring silver hull, She serves up morning coffee over Basle and Istanbul. |
5. In names of various types of aircraft, as
air ambulance (
cf. ambulance aeroplane),
air-bomber [see 2],
air-bus,
air-car,
air freighter,
air liner,
† air-machine,
† air-sailer (-or),
air scout,
air taxi,
air vehicle,
air yacht;
air-boat, (
a) a lighter-than-air aircraft; (
b)
= flying boat. Also,
aircraft, airplane 2,
airship,
air-vessel 3.
| 1921 Aeronautics 2 June 394/1 The first air ambulance..is painted aluminium with a large Red Cross painted on the fuselage and beneath the wings. 1933 Lancet 16 Dec. 1381/2 Air ambulance detachments under the British Red Cross. Ibid. 15 July 160/2 An air-ambulance service for the conveyance of urgent..cases to the hospitals and infirmaries in Glasgow. |
| 1870 tr. F. Marion's Wonderful Balloon Ascents iii. iv. 218 The air-boat of M. Pline seems to us one of the best ideas; but the working of it presents many difficulties. 1876 C. B. Mansfield Aerial Navig. ii. xiii. 436 The action of rowing an air-boat must be much simpler than the same exercise on water. 1913 Britannica Year-bk. 343 The second class [of seaplane], variously termed ‘flying-boat’ and ‘air-boat’, consists essentially of a long boat-shaped hull, wherein the passengers' seats are contained, and on which the planes are built up. 1926 Glasgow Herald 18 Aug. 9 New British all-metal air-boats. |
| 1910 Times 4 May 11/6 Probably when there are air-buses we shall call their drivers airmen. 1960 Aeroplane XCVIII. 468/1 A subsonic short- to medium-stage high passenger-density aircraft, for operation at low fares. This we call the Air-Bus. |
| 1829 Air-car [see airworthy a.]. 1911 Grahame-White & Harper Aeroplane ii. 41 Further developments, in passenger-carrying, are expected during 1911, when ‘air-cars’, carrying four and six occupants as their regular equipment, will be introduced. 1962 Flight Internat. LXXXII. Suppl. 6/3 The air car [i.e. a hovercraft] is capable of operating over land, water, sand, swamps, snow, or thin ice, with equal ease. |
| 1930 Pop. Sci. Monthly Dec. 55/2 (caption) One of the air freighters put in service on a recently opened Pacific coast line. |
| 1908 Daily Mail 25 May 7/6 The cost of working the air-liner was represented as small. 1955 Times 11 July 9/3 Twenty people died in the airliner, which crashed on..a scheduled flight. |
| 1783 Morning Herald 17 Sept. 3/1 In a few days I shall have finished an air-machine, which will ascend, descend, or describe at pleasure a horizontal line. 1881 W. D. Hay 300 Years Hence xii. 326 Tenders on the opposite side of the great air-machine begin to load. 1910 Times 23 Aug. 7/5 People look for the coming of the day when air machines are to become a practical means of regular locomotion. |
| 1897 Aeronaut. Ann. No. 3, p. 2 The development of the motorless air-sailer. 1923 Daily Mail 17 Apr. 8 The engineless air-sailor. |
| 1913 Grahame-White & Harper With Airmen xi. 276 The air scouts whirl over the enemy's troops at the rate of sixty miles an hour. 1914 Sphere 3 Oct. p. ii, One of these dismantled air scouts. |
| 1920 Flight XII. 459/2 The chief concern of the many Americans who attended Mr. Handley Page's recent lectures on aviation in the United States appeared to be to discover when air taxis would be possible. 1927 Observer 7 Aug. 11/3 It was an ordinary air-taxi flight from Brooklands to Ascot. 1963 Economist 14 Dec. 1125/3 Charter and air-taxi flights in the area. |
| 1902 Aeronaut. Jrnl. July 51/1 Some accomplishment on the part of an air vehicle. |
| 1898 Ibid. July 54/2 The millionaire who indulges in an air yacht. 1920 Flight XII. 865/1 A converted..flying boat, fitted up as an ‘aerial yacht’... This air yacht—elegantly furnished with two cabins seating 10 passengers..was officially launched..on June 22. |
6. In names of parts of aircraft, or of apparatus used in aircraft or for the navigation of aircraft, as
air chart,
air frame [
frame n. 11 h],
air log,
air map,
air propeller (so
air prop colloq.),
air sextant; also,
air-brake, a movable plane or flap on the wing of an aeroplane, that can be lowered to decrease its speed;
airscrew, a power-driven screw for producing pull or thrust by rotation in the air; a propeller.
| 1914 Aeronaut. Jrnl. July 228 Air brakes..must not tend to produce any upsetting effect on the machine. 1928 C. F. S. Gamble North Sea Air Station xiii. 210 Fitted with an air-brake in the form of adjustable flaps in the trailing edge of the lower plane adjacent to the fuselage. |
| 1920 Flight XII. 854/2 These air charts, which are constructed on Mercator's projection, measure approximately 20 ins. by 18 ins. 1951 Oxf. Jun. Encycl. IV. 290/1 An air map presents an accurate picture of the ground below, illustrating..all conspicuous geographical features... An air chart, drawn to a much smaller scale and without the elaborate detail of the map, is designed simply to enable the navigator to plot his position during the journey. |
| 1931 Aircraft Engin. Jan. 9/2 Enclose both engines..in a high speed air frame. 1957 Technology July 187/1 A turbo-jet engine which rose straight into the air by itself with no airframe at all [the ‘flying bedstead’]. |
| 1928 V. E. Clark Elements Aviation 138 Air log, an instrument for measuring the linear travel of an aircraft relative to the air. 1943 ‘T. Dudley-Gordon’ Coastal Command at War xii. 115 One navigator..always takes a portable typewriter with him on a raid... So I thought that I should do my air logs on the typewriter. |
| 1913 Grahame-White & Harper With Airmen viii. 204 It has been decided that..certain districts should be marked out on air-maps, and that aeroplanes should not be allowed to fly over them. 1951 Air map [see air chart]. |
| 1935 T. E. Lawrence Let. 5 Apr. (1938) 867 You can push an air-prop pitch up to great steepness, so long as the revs are not extravagant. |
| 1910 R. Ferris How it Flies x. 208 The form of the air-propeller has passed through a long and varied development. |
| [1784 tr. J. P. Blanchard's Jrnl. 6 The fly, acting on the air as a screw, appeared to me the most suitable and efficacious mode which an aeronaute can adopt to advance in a calm.] 1894 Proc. Internat. Conf. Aerial Navig., Chicago 265 For aeroplanes driven by screw propellers..there must always be two air screws..rotating in opposite directions. 1914 Aeronaut. Jrnl. XVIII. 315 Airscrew, used as a generic term to include both a propellor and a tractor screw. 1916 M. A. S. Riach Air-Screws ii. 14 (heading) The forces acting on an air-screw blade. 1951 Oxf. Jun. Encycl. IV. 8/2 The gas-turbine is widely used in aircraft to turn an ordinary propeller or airscrew... For long, fast journeys the airscrew-turbine is much used. |
| 1922 Flight XIV. 754/3 They can now supply..revolution indicators..air sextants, [etc.]. |
7. Of land or buildings used for the operation or maintenance of aircraft, as
air base,
air park (chiefly
U.S.),
air shed,
air station; also,
ˈairdrome U.S. = aerodrome 2 b;
ˈair-strip, a strip of land prepared for the taking off and landing of aircraft, often for temporary use. Also
airfield,
airport.
| 1919 Athenæum 23 May 360/2 ‘Air-base’, ‘aircraft’,..‘air mechanic’, [etc.]..are now everyday terms. 1938 Flight XXXIV. 424 e/2 The cost of the Shannon air base..will be close on half a million pounds. |
| 1917 E. N. Fales Learning to Fly v. 97 The airdrome..is used exclusively for flying, and may be as large as a mile square. 1943 Airdrome [see airfield]. |
| 1929 Daily Tel. 22 Apr. 2/5 Ten air parks..and sixty landing grounds will be provided. 1944 Amer. Speech XIX. 304 ‘Airparks’, the ATS said, would be small landing fields in or near communities for the use of private flyers. |
| 1915 Whitaker's Almanack 1916 464/2 French airmen raided the German air-sheds at Freiburg. |
| 1911 Aeronautics Apr. 13/2 Starting and Landing Stations..A cumbersome expression... ‘Air Stations’ have been suggested as alternatives. 1914 Whitaker's Almanack 1915 774 Fort George (Cromarty Firth).—British Naval Air Station. 1923 Daily Mail 17 July 10 Ocean Air-stations. |
| 1942 Newsweek 7 Dec. 27/3 Then..further airstrips for landing the transport planes were built by the troops as they went along the jungle trails. 1944 Times 18 Mar. 3/2 The American forces..immediately began a drive for the air-strip. 1956 W. Slim Defeat into Victory xii. 251 An airstrip which served as an emergency landing ground on the Hump route. |
8. Of routes or courses taken through the air by anything flying,
esp. by aircraft, as
air lane,
air road,
air route; also,
air corridor, a route to which aircraft are restricted,
esp. one over a foreign country. Also
airway 2.
| 1922 Flight XIV. 34/1 (heading) Abolition of Air ‘Corridors’. The regulations which have hitherto been in force relating to the ‘corridors’ by which aircraft might enter and leave the U.K. have now been abolished. 1948 Daily Mail 22 Apr. 1/3 The R.A.F. have introduced air corridors from which Russian and Eastern European planes must not stray as they fly over the British zone of Germany. |
| 1911 R. M. Pierce Dict. Aviation 16 Air-lane, a lane or road thru the air. 1958 Listener 13 Feb. 269/1 Do not think..that the airlines fly as the crow flies... They fly along prescribed air lanes..they meander and zig-zag. |
| 1909 Westm. Gaz. 30 Aug. 2/3 Already we hear of rules of the air-road. 1926 Kipling Debits & Credits 359 He Who bids the wild-swans' host still maintain their flight on Air-roads over islands lost. |
| 1911 Technical World Mag. Sept. 117/2 (title) Marking out air routes. 1935 Economist 26 Oct. 816/1 The Company will continue to be the Government's chosen instrument for the operation and development of Empire air routes. |
Add:
[B.] [II.] airhead slang (chiefly
N. Amer.), someone who is foolish, simple-minded, or stupid; a blockhead.
| 1980 Maclean's Mag. 11 Aug. 54/3 One of the many *airheads who move torpidly through the $40-million mistake known as Raise the Titanic says in a throat-clutching voice: ‘A ship that big down that deep!?!?’ 1984 Daily Tel. 11 Feb. 16/4 One can imagine the media barons when they saw that these entertainment-world ‘airheads’ (the current preferred term)..had concocted an irresponsibly tendentious account from these very Press reports. |
air-wave, (
b)
usu. pl. as
airwaves, with
the: the medium of transmission of radio or television waves; also
= airway n. 3.
| 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §618/4 ‘The air’ (the medium of transmission of radio waves),..airlanes, airline, air or ether waves. 1944 Amer. Speech XIX. 49 The New York agencies..spread fifth column over the pages of every subscribing newspaper in the country and onto the air waves as well. 1967 Economist 28 Jan. 331/2 No platitude has been more abused than that of ‘freedom of the airwaves’. 1977 Daily Mail 24 Sept. 15/1 Fab, groovy Radio 1 played its first record Flowers in the Rain, by ‘The Move’, on September 30, 1967, six weeks after the Marine Offences Act blew the pirate radio stations off the airwaves for good. 1982 Listener 16 Dec. 6/3 The pressure on states to honour their agreements and avoid chaos in the international airwaves will be very great. |
[III.] [1.] airside, the side of an airport terminal building from which aircraft can be observed taking off and landing; hence, the area of an airport beyond passport and customs controls which gives immediate access to the aircraft, and in which only passengers and airline and airport officials are permitted: contrasted with *
land-side n. 2 b; hence
attrib., without
art., and as
adv.| 1955 Daily Tel. 28 Jan. 6/5 The waving base is on the ‘*airside’ as distinct from the ‘landside’ of the building, and thus gives a clear view of the aircraft leaving the ‘terminal apron’. 1956 J. Chandos London Airport 19 (caption) The airside gallery. 1967 Times Rev. Industry Apr. 60/3 The British Airports Authority is to spend nearly {pstlg}1m. on the first phase of expanding the passenger handling capacity of the Number 3 long-haul terminal by extending the airside arrival and departure lounges. 1984 Times 14 May 19/4 Decide now at what time you will yourself go through the controls which take you airside. 1986 Daily Tel. 18 Apr. 36/4 For several hours the terminal-building was plunged into chaos. ‘Airside’ was sealed off by armed police. 1987 Pilot Apr. 30/2 An airside bus operation, specifically for use by GA captains, passengers and baggage, has been provided by the Airport Authority free of charge. |
Add:
[B.] [II.] air battery, a dry cell or battery in which current is generated by the oxidization in air of an electrode (usually one of zinc).
| 1943 Chem. Abstr. XXXVII. 3354 In practical performance such ‘*air batteries’ have excelled the best pyrolusite (Leclanché) batteries. 1975 D. G. Fink Electronics Engineers' Handbk. vii. 51 Air batteries... This system, using bulky zinc anodes, a carbon-air electrode, and a potassium hydroxide electrolyte in a glass jar, has been used successfully for railway signals and similar applications. |
air bearing, a bearing that consists of a jet of air.
| 1949 Shaw & Macks Analysis & Lubrication of Bearings viii. 330 Although Hirn first mentioned the possibility of using air as a lubricant in 1855, Kingsbury was the first to carry out an actual experimental investigation of the hydrodynamic lubrication of an *air bearing. 1991 Professional Engin. July–Aug. 57/1 The new high accuracy 750 series has a ceramic spindle, ‘A’ frame design, low friction air bearings and Kemco's PC3D software package. |
air-brake: hence
air-braked a.| 1952 Jrnl. Inst. Locomotive Engineers XLII. ii. 151 The corresponding figure for air loss for *air braked trains was 50 cubic feet of free air per hour. 1984 ‘Tiresias’ Notes from Overground 10 For Use On Merry-Go-Round Air-Braked Trains Only. |
▸ In BMX biking, skateboarding, snowboarding, etc.: an aerial manoeuvre or jump. Also as a mass noun: the height achieved during such a manoeuvre, as in
to get big air, etc.
| 1984 B. Osborn Compl. Bk. BMX 208 (caption) Double airs by the BMX ACTION trick team. 1994 Snowboard UK Dec. 72/2 The newest type of moves..[are] smooth controlled airs. 1997 Skiing (Electronic ed.) Feb. 98 Practice catching some air. 2001 N.Y. Times 4 Jan. d5/5 Skier speeds have picked up..and everybody is getting big air on their jumps. 2002 Dallas Morning News (Nexis) 19 Aug. 18 b, Burnquist landed a switchstance frontside air across the gap on a 360-degree ramp. |
▸
U.S. Chiefly in classified advertisements: air conditioning,
esp. in a car or other vehicle.
Cf. central air n. at
central adj. Additions
| 1974 Anderson (S. Carolina) Independent 19 Apr. 10 b/7 (advt.) 1972 Buick LeSabre Four Door Custom, fully equipped including air. 1989 Austin (Texas) Amer.-Statesman 29 Apr. c15 (advt.) L/bed, auto, air, AM/FM cass., cruise, tilt. 1992 Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times 21 Jan. 22/6 (advt.) Honda Prelude SI, 5-speed, air, cruise, sunroof, excellent condition. |
▸
air check n. chiefly
U.S. a recording made from a (radio) broadcast,
spec. one used to demonstrate the work of a particular performer.
| 1938 San Mateo (Calif.) Times 5 Apr. 9/5, I have a recording machine at home and I never miss making *air-checks of your ‘Good News’ numbers. 1984 Broadcast 7 Dec. 59/2 (advt.) Ability to read live advertisements fluently is essential. Please send air-check to Radio Nova. 2004 Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 9 May vii. 15/4 Filling out the disc are three air-checks from live Carnegie Hall performances. |
▸
air quality n. the quality of the ambient air;
spec. the degree to which it is free of pollutants, as assessed using recognized indicators.
| 1911 Ann. Amer. Acad. Polit. & Social Sci. 37 207 That *air quality has a definite relation to comfort and health is never denied. 1959 San Francisco Chron. 5 Dec. 1/3 A law based on the air-quality standards adopted yesterday would demand that 80 per cent of the hydrocarbons be removed from motor vehicle exhausts. 1995 Amer. Health May 35/1 Can you blame your constant sneezing, congestion or other chronic cold symptoms on your job? Perhaps, if you work in a building with poor air quality. 2001 S. Roaf et al. Ecohouse (2002) iv. 85 Their influence on microclimate, air quality, physical health and psychological state is also very different. |
▸
air quote n. orig. U.S. (
usu. in
pl.) a pair of quotation marks gestured by a speaker's fingers in the air,
esp. to indicate that what is being said is ironic, mocking, or disingenuous, or is not a turn of phrase the speaker would typically employ.
| [1927 Science 8 July 38/2 Some years ago I knew a very intelligent young woman who used to inform us that her ‘bright sayings’..were not original, by raising both hands above her head with the first and second fingers pointing upward. Her fingers were her ‘quotation marks’ and were very easily understood.] 1989 Spy Mar. 94/1 When Bob and Betty describe themselves in these ways, they raise the middle and forefingers of both hands, momentarily forming twitching bunny ears—*air quotes, the quintessential contemporary gesture that says We're not serious. 1994 Guardian 10 Oct. ii. 11/3 This hugely successful new publication mixes beer, birds and bad language into a nauseatingly laddish concoction which Young insists is just for laughs. ‘It's like the Sun with air quotes around it.’ 1998 J. Haiman Talk is Cheap iii. 52 The ubiquity in North America of the mimed or ‘air quote’. 2001 Washington Post (Electronic ed.) 17 June ‘I worked up a telecommuting package so I won't be fishing that much less. I get to work from home on Fridays,’ said Fitzpatrick, making air quotes around ‘from home’ with his fingers. |
▸
air rage n.compare
rage n.,
road rage n. extreme anger or frustration felt during a flight;
spec. aggressive or violent behaviour by a passenger on board an aircraft.
| 1996 Independent 22 May 17/1 ‘Do airline pilots get..*air rage?’ ‘Yes. Especially when denied landing rights, or a take-off slot, or when another aeroplane nearly hits them in mid-air.’ 1997 Times-Picayune (New Orleans) 23 Nov. a3 Authorities are getting tough on a problem some have dubbed ‘air rage’: increasingly belligerent, often drunk passengers who endanger jetliners by assaulting flight crews and fellow fliers. 2002 Daily Rec. (Glasgow) (Electronic ed.) 6 July Any terrorist incident or even air rage incident is more likely to involve people sitting next to the aisle. |
▸
air rights n. (a) orig. and chiefly
U.S. the right to build or develop above an existing property;
(b) the right to fly in the airspace over a particular area.
| 1903 Lima (Ohio) Times Democrat 6 Aug. 8/6 The *air rights of valuable railroad property in the congested centers of large cities can be used for buildings. 1917 Times 22 June 3/1 National air rights presumably existed over the land of any nation. 1994 Time 9 May 42/2 The P.L.O. accepted a three-mile limitation on territorial waters off the Gaza Strip and gave Israel air rights over the self-rule zones. 2003 S. Brown Free Gift Inside! 76 The owner of Tiffany..sold him the air rights over his Fifth Avenue flagship. |
▸
air show n. an aviation exhibition featuring aerial displays and stunts.
| 1912 Chicago Daily Tribune 23 Aug. 5/2 It was to celebrate the arrival..of the Gordon Bennett cup defender monoplane..that the *air show was conceived. 1927 N.Y. Times 24 Aug. 13/3 A wedding in the air is scheduled as a feature of the three-day national air show. 2002 List ((Glasgow & Edinb. Events Guide)) 4 July 108/2 The air show is set to include the exciting antics of Europe's only wing-walking team,..as well as the exceptional RAF Falcons parachute display team. |
▸
air steward n. a person (
esp. a man) employed to serve passengers on an aircraft; a flight attendant;
cf. air stewardess n.| 1922 Chicago Daily Tribune 21 May g9 (caption) The next time you take the London–Paris airliner you will find *air stewards aboard... The two small men shown in the picture are the first air stewards in the world. 1996 EatSoup Dec. 34/1 The stress of a schedule involving eight flights..requires you to stock up on carbohydrates and in-flight booze just to stop yourself from hitting an air steward with your laptop. |
▪ II. air, n.2 Sc. (
ɛə(r))
Also
aer,
aire,
ayr(e,
er.
[ON. eyrr; cf. Norw. {obar}r, {obar}yr sandbank, gravel-bank.] A gravelly beach. (See
Sc. Nat. Dict. s.v. air n.4)
| a 1795 G. Low Tour thro' Ork. & Schet. (1879) 11 A house on the Aire..bears the empty name of the Fish-house. 1809 A. Edmondston State Zetl. Is. I. iii. 140 Most of the extensive beaches on the coast are called airs; as Stour-air, Whale-air, Bou-air. 1868 D. Gorrie Summers & Winters in Orkneys ix. 365 This aith, ayre, or spit of land. 1933 Geogr. Jrnl. LXXXI. 505 These ‘green fish’ were bought by the merchants and dried on stony ayres. 1936 Nature 19 Sept. 512/2 The most interesting find..was at Braewick..where storm water had breached an ‘ayr’ or storm beach. |
▪ III. air, v. (
ɛə(r))
[f. the n.; cf. to water, fire, dust.] 1. trans. To expose to the open or fresh air, so as to remove foul or damp air; to ventilate.
| 1530 Palsgr. 419/2, I ayre or wether, as men do thynges whan they lay them in the open ayre, or as any lynen thyng is after it is newe wasshed or it be worne..Ayre these clothes for feare of mothes. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 359 Let him..wicker Baskets weave, or aire the Corn. 1816 Scott Old Mort. 317 To brush and air them [doublet and cloak] from time to time. 1861 F. Nightingale Nursing ii. 13 Always air your room from the outside air, if possible. |
2. Hence, from the idea of expelling damp: To expose to heat, to dry or warm at the fire.
| 1610 Ordin. R. Househ. 338 To make fires to ayer the chamber. 1679 Crowne Ambit. Statesm. ii. 19 To carry charcoal in to air his shirt. 1689 Lady R. Russell Lett. 96 II. 30, I shall come and air your beds for a night. 1722 De Foe Plague 87 While the bed was airing. 1759 Symmer in Phil. Trans. LI. 350 After being a little air'd at the fire. 1813 M. Edgeworth Patron. (1833) II. xxxi. 311 Nothing airs a house so well as a warm friend. |
† 3. To leave pasture unstocked.
Obs.| 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (1856) 82 Those closes..have beene ayred [‘and kept fresh,’ p. 83] from St. Andrewe-day till the time that the ewes come in. |
4. To expose oneself to the fresh air; to take the air.
a. refl.| 1611 Shakes. Cymb. i. ii. 110 Were you but riding forth to ayre yourselfe. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 159 ¶2 As I was here airing myself on the tops of the mountains. 1823 Lamb Elia Ser. ii. xi. (1865) 302 To go and air myself in my native fields. 1864 Tennyson Aylmer's F. 468 And fain had haled him out into the world And air'd him there. |
b. intr. (by omission of
refl. pron.)
arch.| 1633 Massinger New Way, etc. i. ii, I'll take the air alone. You air, and air: But will you never taste but spoon-meat more? 1733 Pope Eth. Ep. iii. 388 The well-bred cuckolds in S. James's air. 1826 Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. (1863) 317 She went airing every day. 1830 T. Hamilton Cyr. Thornton (1845) 121 Lady Amersham has gone out airing..in her pony phaeton. |
5. fig. a. trans. To wear openly, expose to public view. In modern times the meaning has been influenced by
airs, ‘affected gestures,’ so as to mean, To show off, to parade ostentatiously.
| 1611 Shakes. Cymb. ii. iv. 98, I begge but leaue to ayre this jewel. 1631 Cornwallyes Ess. xxiii, I have been afraid to weare fashions untill they have beene ayred by a generall use. 1847 Tennyson Princ. i. 120 Airing a snowy hand and signet ring. 1878 R. B. Smith Carthage 364 To air their importance and their imbecility. |
b. refl. and intr. To expose oneself publicly, to show oneself off.
| 1670 Eachard Contempt Clergy 17 To have his name only stand airing upon the college tables. 1823 Lamb Elia Ser. ii. xxii. (1865) 386 A poor human fancy may have leave to sport and air itself. 1874 Green Short Hist. x. §2. 742 The young sovereign who aired himself in the character..of a Patriot King. |
c. trans. To give expression to, to make public (an opinion, grievance, etc.).
| 1879 R. Elliot Writ. on Foreheads I. 13 A chance of airing some of his pet theories. a 1902 S. Butler Way of All Flesh (1903) lv. 251 He did not air any of his schemes to me until I had drawn him out concerning them. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 624 Skin-the-Goat..was airing his grievances. 1956 A. Wilson Anglo-Saxon Attitudes I. i. 17, I don't relish..the prospect of hearing Rose Lorimer air her crazy theories. 1984 Church Times 9 Nov. 11/1 Whilst recognising the impact made by Billy Graham's visit, it is important to air a number of issues—particularly in view of his mission in Sheffield next year. |
† 6. intr. (with
away) To pass into air, evaporate.
| 1627 Feltham Resolves ii. lv. (1677) 272 It airs away to nothing by only standing still. |
† 7. To set to music.
Obs. (See
airable.)
| 1653 J. Cobb Pref. to H. Lawes' Ayres & Dial. (D.) For not a drop that flows from Helicon But ayred by thee grows streight into a song. |
8. To broadcast. Also (
U.S.)
intr. for pass., to be broadcast.
Cf. air n.1 A 1 c. Chiefly
U.S.| 1952 W. Granville Dict. Theatr. Terms 15 Air, to broadcast a play, or excerpts of one, on the radio. 1960 Guardian 12 Oct. 9/2 The independent network that aired the programme. 1973 Publishers Weekly 12 Mar. 9 (Advt.), After the tape was aired..we received hundreds of calls from listeners. 1974 Greenville (S. Carolina) News 20 Apr. 10/4 ‘Planet Earth’, which airs on ABC Tuesday, is in a way the flip side of ‘Star Trek’. 1981 Economist 24 Jan. 28/3 The obligation to keep records of all programmes aired. 1981 TV Picture Life (U.S.) Mar. 32/1 Those Amazing Animals, which aired last August, should be a big smash. |
▪ IV. air, adv. Sc. (
ɛə(r),
Sc. eːr)
Forms: 1
ær, 2–3
ar,
aar, 4–
air(e.
[The later Sc. form of ME. northern ar(e, OE. ǽr adj., adv., prep., and conj., ‘former, formerly, before’; see mod.Eng. ere, which is only a prep. (and conj.), while Sc. air is only an adv. (cf. ear-ly).] † 1. Before, formerly, previously.
| a 822 O.E. Chron. an. 797 And eft wæs papa swa he ær wæs. 1205 Layam. 28687 Þa oðere cnihtes þa at þan fehte ar weoren. c 1300 K. Alis. 5033 Hy ben broun of hare, as hy weren aar. 1375 Barbour Bruce xviii. 211 Eduard the bruce, as I said air, Wes descumfit. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scotl. I. 536 The sone..of Fyndocus as I haif said ȝow air. |
2. Early, soon; opposed to
late.
| c 1200 Ormin 6242 Beon ar & lăte o ȝunnkerr weorrc. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. viii. xxxiii. 145 Come I are, come I late. 1501 Douglas Pal. Hon. ii. xxix, Quha is content, rejoycit air or lait. 1651 Calderwood Hist. Kirk (1843) ii. 211 Skairse could anie of the nobilitie have accesse to her aire or late. 1725 Ramsay Gent. Sheph. i. i, She jeers me air and late. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxvii, [Baillie Nicol Jarvie loq.] ‘Air day or late day, the fox's hide finds aye the flaying knife.’ |
▪ V. air dial. form of
are: see
be.
▪ VI. air north. and
Sc. form of
oar,
heir.
▪ VII. air(e Sc. form of
eyre, a circuit court.