ˈgas-ˌbag
1. a. A bag in which gas is kept for use.
| 1827 Faraday Chem. Manip. xv. 353 Gas-bags are made of oiled silk. c 1865 J. Wylde in Circ. Sc. I. 194/2 Gasometers or gas-bags. 1871 tr. Schellen's Spectr. Anal. 17 Gas-bag for oxygen or hydrogen. |
b. A balloon or airship; a bag inflated with gas, forming part of an airship or balloon.
| 1852 Illustr. London News 18 Sept. 224/2 Above us reeled the monster gas-bag like a monster peg-top. 1877 Design & Work III. 602 Science! indeed, to talk of propelling a flaccid gas-bag! 1897 Aeronaut. Jrnl. Jan. 6/2 The machine flew against the wind. There was nothing of the balloon nature about it. There were no gas bags to uphold it. 1912 Rev. Reviews XLVI. 61 Inside the frames go the gas-bags, sixteen or so in number. 1932 Ann. Reg. 1931 32 The liability of the gas-bags to chafing was the only weak spot in the airship. 1963 A. Smith Throw out Two Hands (1966) iv. 43 Somehow I was unprepared for looking into the gas-bag above us,..and for seeing nothing. |
2. An inflated bag used to plug a gas-main during repairs or alterations.
| 1884 in Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. |
3. A flat circular bag of gas-tight material serving to keep a stock of gas for a gas-engine.
4. An empty talker, a ‘windbag’.
| 1889 Referee 6 Jan. 1/4 That great gas-bag of modern days, John L. Sullivan. 1894 Ch. Times 16 Mar. 302 One who will prove a better guide to national eminence than the gas-bags who trade upon their weakest characteristics. |