parachutenoun [ C ]
uk/ˈpær.ə.ʃuːt/us/ˈper.ə.ʃuːt/B2 a piece of equipment made of a large piece of special cloth that is fastened to a person or thing that is dropped from an aircraft, in order to make him, her, or it fall slowly and safely to the ground
Examples
- a parachute harness
- Airborne troops were dropped by parachute behind enemy lines.
- For whatever reason his parachute failed to open.
- She's agreed to do a parachute jump for charity.
- There was a large tear in his parachute.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Air travel: balloons & parachutes
- aerostat
- airship
- balloon
- barrage balloon
- blimp
- canopy
- chute
- hot-air balloon
- ripcord
- Zeppelin
parachuteverb
uk/ˈpær.ə.ʃuːt/us/ˈper.ə.ʃuːt/[ I usually + adv/prep ] to jump from an aircraft using a parachute:
The plan is to parachute into the town.
[ T usually + adv/prep ] to drop someone or something from an aircraft by parachute:
[ often passive ] Thousands of leaflets were parachuted behind enemy lines.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Air sports
- base jumping
- glide
- gliding
- hang-glider
- paragliding
- parapente
- parascending
- skydiving