Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An orthopterous insect; an orthopteran or orthopteron; any member of the Orthoptera.
- noun A form of dirigible flying-machine or aërodrome, heavier than the air it displaces and using no gas-bag, in which the motor supplying the energy to lift and move the machine acts directly to produce motion in the desired direction.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any
insect of the orderOrthoptera
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun heavier-than-air craft that is propelled by the flapping of wings
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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-- The term orthopter, or ornithopter, meaning bird wing, is applied to such flying machines as depend on wing motion to support them in the air.
Aeroplanes 1915
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If I had stopped to guess I would probably have considered the author a longicorn beetle or some fiddling orthopter.
Edge of the Jungle William Beebe 1919
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Two of them, the aeroplane, and the orthopter, have prototypes in nature, and are distinguished by their respective similarities to the soaring birds, and those with flapping wings.
Aeroplanes 1915
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This principle, however, affords a safer means of navigating than the orthopter type, because the blades of such an instrument can be forced through the air with infinitely greater speed than beating wings, and it devolves on the inventor to devise some form of apparatus which will permit the change of pull from a vertical to a horizontal direction while in flight.
Aeroplanes 1915
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