Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The moment in the trajectory of a rocket when the fuel burns out, after which it continues with its own momentum for some distance and then begins to succumb to gravity; all-burnt, burn-out

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From German Brennschluß.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Brennschluss.

Examples

  • It's the touch of the wandering sound-shadow, the Brennschluss of the Sun.

    Gravity's Rainbow Pynchon, Thomas 1978

  • Ascending, programmed in a ritual of love ... at Brennschluss it is done-the Rocket's purely feminine counterpart, the zero point at the center of its target, has submitted.

    Gravity's Rainbow Pynchon, Thomas 1978

  • So was the Rocket's terrible passage reduced, literally, to bourgeois terms, terms of an equation such as that elegant blend of philosophy and hardware, abstract change and hinged pivots of real metals which describes motion under the aspect of yaw control: preserving, possessing, steering between Scylla and Charybdis the whole way to Brennschluss.

    Gravity's Rainbow Pynchon, Thomas 1978

  • Brennschluss exactly here would make the Rocket go on to hit 1000 yards east of Waterloo Station.

    Gravity's Rainbow Pynchon, Thomas 1978

  • There's a Brennschluss point for every firing site.

    Gravity's Rainbow Pynchon, Thomas 1978

  • His propulsion tube reached _Brennschluss_, and for a few moments he watched, checking his speed and direction.

    Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet 1952

  • You can't walk around very well until the ship reaches _Brennschluss_.

    Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet 1952

  • It reached _Brennschluss_, and there was darkness.

    Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet 1952

  • The Planeteer officer knows what _Brennschluss_ is.

    Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet 1952

  • Now, ten minutes after _Brennschluss_, they were going to start deceleration.

    Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet 1952

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.