Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An airplane having two pairs of wings fixed at different levels, especially one above and one below the fuselage.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In mathematics, the pair of coincident planes to which the tangent cone of a node reduces, when that node is a binode.
  • noun A flying- or a gliding-machine in which two principal superposed aëroplane surfaces are depended upon to sustain the machine in the air.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Aëronautics) An aëroplane with two main supporting surfaces one above the other.
  • adjective (Aëronautics) Having, or consisting of, two superposed planes, aërocurves, or the like; of or pertaining to a biplane.

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

  • noun aviation An airplane that has two pairs of wings, one above the other

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun old fashioned airplane; has two wings one above the other

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The Gilmore house earned its “airplane” nickname immediately, both because of its shape, looking like a biplane from the east, and because of its location, which made it appear that the "plane" was about to take off over the city of Madison.

    Funny, You Don't Look 100! 2008

  • Lots of other small planes, some old, some new, also flew over but the only engine nearly as loud as the biplane was the tour boat out of Newburyport harbor.

    Archive 2007-07-01 2007

  • Lots of other small planes, some old, some new, also flew over but the only engine nearly as loud as the biplane was the tour boat out of Newburyport harbor.

    Herring Gull on Float 2007

  • Some of them can turn complete somersaults, though this is mostly done in monoplanes, and seldom in a biplane, which is much more stable in the air.

    Dick Hamilton's Airship, or, a Young Millionaire in the Clouds Howard Roger Garis 1917

  • "A biplane is a certain kind of a flying machine."

    The Rover Boys in the Air From College Campus to the Clouds Edward Stratemeyer 1896

  • So often they're flashy, ambitious and about as useful to your home cook as, say, a biplane, which is why so few of them end up on my top 10 lists.

    NPR Topics: News 2009

  • So often they're flashy, ambitious and about as useful to your home cook as, say, a biplane, which is why so few of them end up on my top 10 lists.

    NPR Topics: News 2009

  • So often they're flashy, ambitious and about as useful to your home cook as, say, a biplane, which is why so few of them end up on my top 10 lists.

    NPR Topics: News 2009

  • So often they're flashy, ambitious and about as useful to your home cook as, say, a biplane, which is why so few of them end up on my top 10 lists.

    NPR Topics: News 2009

  • [Illustration: Fig. 110] [If you have drawn the picture, Fig. 110, in advance, merely indicate the parts as you proceed; otherwise, point them out as you finish each part of the machine.] "This style of machine is known as the biplane, or two-plane.

    Crayon and Character: Truth Made Clear Through Eye and Ear Or, Ten-Minute Talks with Colored Chalks 1900

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