Definitions

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

  • noun A drogue parachute.
  • noun A funnel-shaped or cone-shaped device towed behind an aircraft as a target.
  • noun A funnel-shaped device at the end of the hose of a tanker aircraft, used as a stabilizer and receptacle for the probe of a receiving aircraft, as in refueling.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The drag, an implement, used to check the progress of a running whale by being bent on to the drogue-iron.
  • noun Same as drag, 1, .

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

  • noun (Naut.) See drag, n., 6, and Drag sail, under drag, n.
  • noun a small parachute dragged behind a vehicle as a means of stabilizing it, or deployed first so as to assist opening of a larger parachute.
  • noun a funnel-shaped attachment at the end of a hose suspended from a tanker airplane in flight, to which the probe of another airplane may connect, so as to complete a connecting hose line through which fuel may be transferred from the tanker to the following airplane. It is used for in-flight refueling.

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

  • noun A floating object attached to the end of a harpoon line to slow a whale down and prevent it from diving.
  • noun nautical A type of bag pulled behind a boat to stop it from broaching to.
  • noun aeronautics A conical basket or fabric construction used variously as a type of brake for some kinds of aircraft, a target for gunnery practice, and as a docking point for aerial refuelling.
  • noun A wind cone.

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

  • noun restraint consisting of a canvas covered frame that floats behind a vessel; prevents drifting or maintains the heading into a wind
  • noun a funnel-shaped device towed as a target by an airplane
  • noun a truncated cloth cone mounted on a mast; used (e.g., at airports) to show the direction of the wind
  • noun a parachute used to decelerate an object that is moving rapidly

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps alteration of drag (influenced by obsolete drogue, drug).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Origin uncertain; probably related to drag in some way.

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Examples

  • This “basket,” as aviators call the drogue, holds the hose steady in flight and helps the pilot seeking fuel guide the refueling probe to its target.

    The Dream Machine Richard Whittle 2010

  • This “basket,” as aviators call the drogue, holds the hose steady in flight and helps the pilot seeking fuel guide the refueling probe to its target.

    The Dream Machine Richard Whittle 2010

  • This “basket,” as aviators call the drogue, holds the hose steady in flight and helps the pilot seeking fuel guide the refueling probe to its target.

    The Dream Machine Richard Whittle 2010

  • Probe-and-drogue refueling has been around since the 1940s. but no-one has attempted it with unmanned aircraft at high altitude (up to 60,000ft) and low speed (160ft), where deploying and stabilizing the drogue will be a challenge because of the low air density and dynamic pressure.

    Latest Articles 2010

  • Tonight we might — we might fix some kind of drogue to her bottom.

    Hornblower In The West Indies Forester, C. S. 1958

  • Soon he signaled us that he was nearly out of line, and two or three minutes after, he bent on his "drogue" (a square piece of plank with a rope tail spliced into its center, and considered to hinder a whale's progress at least as much as four boats) and let go the end.

    Story Hour Readings: Seventh Year 1923

  • This consisted of a small 6 feet (2 m) stabilizer or "drogue" parachute, designed to prevent uncontrolled spinning at high altitudes, and a 28 ft (8.5 m) main parachute that deployed at a lower altitude.

    Original Signal - Transmitting Digg 2010

  • This consisted of a small 6 feet (2 m) stabilizer or "drogue" parachute, designed to prevent uncontrolled spinning at high altitudes, and a 28 ft (8.5 m) main parachute that deployed at a lower altitude.

    Original Signal - Transmitting Digg 2010

  • "drogue" (a square piece of plank with a rope tail spliced into its centre, and considered to hinder a whale's progress at least as much as four boats), and let go the end.

    The Cruise of the Cachalot Round the World After Sperm Whales Frank T. Bullen 1886

  • A small drogue chute peeked out of the pack and began to extract the rest of the material.

    Gon Wars | SciFi, Fantasy & Horror Collectibles 2009

Comments

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  • "'Let her go and veer away,' he said, and the spritsail course, its clews stopped, dropped into the sea over her blind quarter, acting as a drogue. It checked her speed, but not too obviously..."

    —P. O'Brian, The Surgeon's Mate, 254

    A Sea of Words: "A contrivance, such as a wooden bucket, attached to the end of a harpoon line to check the progress of a whale when it is running or sounding. A submerged sail dragged to slow a sailing vessel." (178)

    October 20, 2008

  • I'm in favour of legalising soft drogues.

    October 21, 2008

  • "If we had two more in our party, I'd put Jake in a moving box with guns on every side of him. Since we don't, we'll move in column--me first, Jake pushing Susannah behind, and you on drogue." From The Wastelands by Stephen King.

    January 2, 2011