Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An apparatus used to retard free fall from an aircraft, consisting of a light, usually hemispherical canopy attached by cords to a harness and worn or stored folded until deployed in descent.
- n. Any of various similar unpowered devices that are used for retarding free-speeding or free-falling motion.
- v. To drop (supplies or troops, for example) by means of a parachute.
- v. To descend by means of a parachute.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An apparatus, usually of an umbrella shape, 20 or 30 feet in diameter, carried in a balloon, that the aëronaut may by its aid drop to the ground without sustaining injury. This is effected by means of the resistance of the air, which causes the parachute to expand and then resists its descent. When not in use, the parachute closes like an umbrella.
- n. A safety-cage (which see).
- n. In zoology, same as patagium.
- n. A broad-brimmed hat worn by women toward the close of the eighteenth century.
- To descend by or as if by the aid of a parachute.
- n. A large funnel of tinned copper set in the skimming-vat of a brewery, the mouth on a level with the surface of the beer, used to receive and carry off the yeast which is skimmed into it by means of a plank paddle.
- n. In botany, a down or tuft of hairs attached to a seed enabling it to float in the air as if supported by a parachute: most properly, a tuft supported by a long beak as in the dandelion (see pappus, cut a), but also applied more broadly. Often adjectival, as in the phrases parachute mechanisms, parachute seeds, etc.
Wiktionary
- n. aviation A device, generally constructed from fabric, that is designed to employ air resistance to control the fall of an object.
- n. zoology A web or fold of skin extending between the legs of gliding mammals, such as the flying squirrel and colugo.
- v. To jump, fall, descend, etc. using such a device.
- v. To be placed in an organisation in a position of seniority without having previous experience there.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A device made of a piece of cloth, usually silk, attached to multiple chords fastened to a harness; when attached to a person or object falling through the air, it opens from a folded configuration into an umbrella-shaped form, thus slowing the rate of descent so that a safe descent and landing may be made through the air from an airplane, balloon, or other high point. It is commonly used for descending to the ground from a flying airplane, as for military operations (as of airborne troops) or in an emergency, or for sport. In the case of use as a sport, the descent from an airplane by parachute is called sky diving. Some older versions of parachute were more rigid, and were shaped somewhat in the form of umbrella.
- n. (Zoöl.) A web or fold of skin which extends between the legs of certain mammals, as the flying squirrels, colugo, and phalangister.
- v. TO descend to th ground from an airplane or other high place using a parachute
WordNet 3.0
- v. jump from an airplane and descend with a parachute
- n. rescue equipment consisting of a device that fills with air and retards your fall
Etymologies
- Borrowing from French parachute, from para- ("protection against") (as in parasol) and chute ("fall"). (Wiktionary)
- French : para(sol), parasol; see parasol + chute, fall; see chute. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“We will give people t-shirts and parachute men painted gold because McGavick is getting a �golden parachute� with the $4.5 million in stock options he is getting from Safeco Insurance.”
“The term parachute almost makes it seem like there's some sort of financial salvation out there for everyone.”
“Like most aspects of early hip-hop, these baggy pants were appropriated into mainstream culture, where the term parachute expanded to describe the large amount of fabric used for them.”
“Falling off a 700 story building without a parachute is a real Howler.”
“Today, a parachute is a drag chute and both crewmen were onboard the aircraft.”
“Over the years he's developed a technique in which he sketches out his works, then paints them in sections on what he calls parachute paper, a thin but durable substance.”
“I agree: if a golden parachute is the difference between black and red ink, then the golden parachute oughta go.”
“It was called “the belly pack, †because the rest of the soldier†™ s gear was worn below the main parachute pack on the soldier†™ s back.”
“My main parachute had malfunctioned and all my attempts to correct it proved futile.”
“Then I released the second (last) buckle, dramatically accelerated downward, and saw the tangled mess of the main parachute assembly, shroud-lines, and canopy material fly away from me like a bird of prey releasing a mouse that was too small to eat.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘parachute’.
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A-R-A Words
It's an odd-looking pattern in English. Please add words if it makes you happy. :) K-POW! Wow @gulyasrobi!
scarab, Arawak, Sahara, Arab, pharaoh, caravan, carat, parachute, arachnid, Saran Wrap, Sarah, tarantella and 492 more...
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Up In The Air @ Wordnik
List of words, terms, and phrases pertaining to or referencing anything that lives, traverses, moves in, uses, or otherwise occupies the space above the ground we walk on. Words and phrases contain...
aeroallergen, aerial, aerial mapping, aerial root, aerobe, aerobiology, aerobioscope, aelophilous, anemotropism, anemoclastic, anafront, antitrades and 273 more...
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50 Ways to Leave Your Lover
walking, bicycle, bus, train, motorcycle, airplane, car, truck, segway, limousine, roller coaster, wheelbarrow and 130 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
abaca, abdominal, abrasive, absorbent, absorber, accelerator, accessory, account book, accumulator, acebutolol, acetaldehyde, acetamide and 4515 more...
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nytimes
rigor, endemic, nonchalance, aspire, illusion, doozie, Herculean, cacophony, rectify, chip in, proponent, vanguard and 16 more...
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War Imagery
bomb, grenade, frag, battlefield, strife, war, commander, sergeant, rifle, gun, bullet, siege and 18 more...
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Words I like
This is a list of my favourite words (phrases) in english, as a second language. I love them mostly because of how they sound and their meaning.
ninja, cookie, skill, zip, plentiful, digg, debris, pancake, cucumber, fetch, pot, backpack and 461 more...
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Two years
Okay, I admit it. I made a list of words my daughter knew when she was two years old.
bat, baba, a, abalone, about, acorn, adrienne, after, again, airplane, alison, all and 694 more...
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Faintheart's Words
onomatopoeia, no, terrafactive, word, faint, heart, joy, quixotic, karla, half, amp, tardis and 181 more...
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para-
protecting or warding off
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Just 'cause I like 'em, P
pellucid, pertain, pampas, prate, pinecone, philistine, pantocrator, papaverine, postmeridian, potlatch, pharology, pinniped and 622 more...
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2007bee-r02
2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee Round 2
query, tendency, danceable, parachute, malignant, brutal, humanely, lyrically, deductible, shindig, gravel, embroidered and 274 more...
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participation
parade, pare, parlay, parry, parure, apparatus, apparel, comprador, disparate, emperor, imperative, imperator and 86 more...
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MEC4 Lesson 155
colonel, commander, major, escape, bide, captured, legal point, Singapore, surrender, mind you, infraction, military law and 38 more...
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Para
paradise, paranormal, paradox, paradiddle, paramecium, parameter, parachute, paralegal, paramedic, parabola, paradigm, parallel and 3 more...
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15 lovely words
comercial crops, steam, hang out, parachute, citrus, submarine, plagiarism, galaxy, fanaticism, ditch, mtropolis, invaluable and 8 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for parachute.

bilby Wot, no parachute for sionnach? *shoves him out of a plane over The Andes* Aug 30, 2008