Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A rigid airship having a long cylindrical body supported by internal gas cells.
Wiktionary
- n. A type of large German dirigible airship of the early 20th century; designed to carry passengers or bombs
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A dirigible balloon of the rigid type, consisting of a cylindrical trussed and covered frame supported by internal gas cells, and provided with means of propulsion and control. It was first successfully used by Ferdinand Count von Zeppelin.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a large rigid dirigible designed to carry passengers or bombs
- n. German inventor who designed and built the first rigid motorized dirigible (1838-1917)
Etymologies
- After Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin.
Examples
“And now the zeppelin is making its way up the mountain to the dwarven hold of Steelhome.”
“As a boy, I remember the zeppelins flying over Scarborough, and I'd shout out to my mom, "schauen Sie Mamma, es ist ein zeppelin!”
“I know, I know, but the word zeppelin has more umpf to it than does blimp.”
“Perhaps a Prius doesn’t sound so bad, when a zeppelin is the alternative.”
“The zeppelin is the size of how many football fields?”
Fictionaut: Everything Has Been Arranged (or, Chamomile Tea at Ten Thousand Feet)
“But the zeppelin was the biggest thing that ever moved made by man.”
“But the zeppelin was a living thing -- a horrible travesty of life.”
“For a full and interesting archive, look before it sells too at the "zeppelin" sidelight -- fascinating group of pictures there, with documentation.”
“Then I'm back to the original "zeppelin" search again and my search key is gone ..”
“Pain floated through her mind like a blazing zeppelin.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘zeppelin’.
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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 270 more...
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Tricky Words from German
Loanwords from German -- some established, some wet behind the ears -- that are difficult to spell, pronounce, or remember.
Torschlusspanik, Fräulein, weltanschauung, Weltschmerz, sprachgefühl, schadenfreude, katzenjammer, Radfahrer, gemütlich, zeitgeist, gesellschaft, gemeinschaft and 48 more...
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Kapok Vest and Other Floaty Words
List of words and things buoyant.
kapok vest, balsa wood, pumice, buoy, lifebuoy, dan, soap bubble, styrofoam, oil, foam, cloud, smoke ring and 43 more...
chained_bear Heard a rather lowbrow joke (it's a bit old, but I'd forgotten about it):
Q: What's the difference between Rush Limbaugh and the Hindenburg?
A: One is a Nazi gasbag, and the other is a Zeppelin. Jul 30, 2009
chr0matica I can never hear this word without thinking of Led Zeppelin... Stairway to Heaven, anyone? Jan 9, 2009
chained_bear Wouldn't this world be kind of cool? Dec 24, 2008
reesetee What a Zeppelin-head. :-) Feb 1, 2007
chained_bear "Zeppelin" is not a synonym for "airship" or "dirigible" though many people use it that way. Zeppelin is a trade name and as such should always be capitalized, and only used to refer to a rigid airship produced by the Zeppelin company. It's like "Kleenex" or "Rollerblade."
Not all airships are dirigibles, either. The difference is that an airship is a "ballon dirigible," or "steerable balloon," while hot-air balloons--though airships--are not steerable.
Dirigibles include both rigid airships and blimps. Rigid airships contain a frame that holds the aircraft's shape regardless of whether the gas cells are filled with gas. A blimp is a large, sturdy (and steerable) balloon, in that it does not have a rigid frame underneath its outer covering (known as the envelope). Feb 1, 2007