glider
(ˈglaɪdə(r))
Also 5–6 glydar(e, -er.
[f. glide v. + -er1.]
1. a. One who, or that which glides; also, that which aids in gliding. Also with up.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 199/1 Glydare, serptor. 1530 Palsgr. 225/2 Glydar a slyder, glancevr. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Aug. 94 Per. The glaunce into my heart did glide, Will. hey ho the glyder. 1597 A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. A v b, The little Glysorye, or Glidere vp and downe. 1850 H. H. Wilson tr. Rig-veda I. 219 The Maruts..are gliders (through the air). |
b. An appendage that aids in gliding.
| 1873 J. B. Pettigrew Anim. Loco. (1874) 170 The elytra or anterior wings are frequently employed as sustainers or gliders in flight. |
c. (See
quot. 1940.)
| 1926–7 Army & Navy Stores Catal. 192/3 Unbreakable glass gliders... Makes furniture easily movable. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 379/1 Gliders, dome-shaped metal pieces fastened to the feet of chairs, settees, etc., in place of casters. |
d. A runner (
runner 13 b) for a curtain.
| 1957 Archit. Rev. CXXII. 356/3 A concealed curtain track called ‘Silent Gliss’ and manufactured by Silent Gliss Ltd. will be shown; nylon gliders to which curtain may be attached direct or by means of hooks, runners or eyes, run in aluminium runners. 1961 Lancet 5 Aug. 297/2 Typical cubicle equipment, comprising aluminium tube and curtain-rail with nylon gliders. |
2. Aeronaut. a. An engineless aeroplane.
| 1897 Aeronaut. Ann. 144, I made my first trials with a soaring machine in the summer of '95... It is exceedingly difficult to make a glider with one surface only which will sail properly. 1903 Daily Chron. 29 Oct. 6/7 The longitudinal stability of aerial gliders. 1909 H. G. Wells Tono-Bungay iii. i. 208, I was developing a glider into a flyer. 1931 Daily Tel. 6 Jan. 12/4 [He] had a leg and an arm broken when his glider crashed. 1950 Engineering 10 Feb. 158/1 The glider had the advantage of being able to land with great accuracy. 1965 ‘Sergeant’ & Watson Gliding Bk. iv. 50 The upward flow is called an ‘anabatic’ wind and it is occasionally strong enough to support a glider in flight. |
b. One who glides or is an expert in gliding.
| 1910 C. C. Turner Aerial Navig. xx. 253 It will be well to take the experiences of the great gliders in proper order, beginning with Lilienthal. 1960 C. H. Gibbs-Smith Aeroplane 197 As to the ‘tower-jumpers’ of history,..there is happily no telling who was the first to deflect himself from the vertical sufficiently to earn the title of first ‘flier’ or ‘glider’ in history. |
3. (See
quot. 1939.)
U.S.| 1932 Hadley Co., Springfield, Mass., Advt. July, Junior Gliders! 1939 Webster Add., Glider, a porch swing with cushioned seat or couch suspended by links from an upright framework. 1969 P. Highsmith Tremor of Forgery xxiv. 225 Adams's terrace faced the gulf and had a glider, table and chairs. |
4. attrib. and
Comb., as
glider air-train (see
quot.);
glider bomb = glide bomb (
s.v. glide n. 6);
glider-borne a., of troops, etc.: carried by glider;
glider train = glider air-train;
glider-tug, a powered aircraft that tows gliders.
| 1935 C. G. Burge Compl. Bk. Aviation 377/1 Glider ‘air train’, an ‘air train’ consists of an aeroplane attached to which are one or more gliders in tow. |
| 1944 Times 24 Jan. 2/4 The enemy pressed home determined attacks on the convoy with glider bombs. 1945 W. Ley Rockets 272 There is no technological similarity between the radio-controlled glider bomb and the jet-propelled flying bomb V-1. |
| 1942 Air News Oct. 27/2 Existing equipment could drop glider-borne troops. 1946 G. Gibson Enemy Coast Ahead xii. 157 Combined use of parachute troops, glider-borne troops, anti-flak fighters and bombers. |
| 1940 Aeronautics Nov. 44/3 Flight tests have shown that more than one glider can be towed by an aeroplane, so that a glider train is not out of question. |
| 1944 Jane's All World's Aircraft 1943–44 43a/2 The principal glider-tug..is capable of towing up to three gliders at a time. |