(often initial capital letter) a large dirigible balloon consisting of a long, cylindrical, covered framework containing compartments or cells filled with gas, and of various structures for holding the engines, passengers, etc.
any rigid airship or dirigible.
First recorded in 1900; after Count von Zeppelin
A zeppelin is a kind of airship that was used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Zeppelins were flown by the German military during World War I. While Germany found many military uses for zeppelins during the first World War, they were also used for commercial air travel by both Germany and the United States. Zeppelins were typically made from an aluminum-like metal, and shaped like a long cylinder. The zeppelin was named after the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, one of the airship's inventors.
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In groundbreaking work published last year, the Harvard team deduced that the stellar halo is tilted and elliptical in shape, like a zeppelin or football.
From Science Daily • Oct. 10, 2023
And Harper asks viewers to hurt themselves suspending their disbelief, most notably in an action sequence where Rachel jumps out of a plane and lands on a zeppelin called The Locker.
From Salon • Aug. 14, 2023
Arooj Aftab is an intriguing pick to close the weekend inside McCurdy Pavilion — an old zeppelin hangar converted into an auditorium — which tells you a lot about THING’s intentions.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 25, 2022
Although hydrogen has been used in ballooning since 1783, its aeronautical future dimmed on May 6, 1937, when the zeppelin Hindenburg very publicly burned in Lakehurst, N.J. killing 36.
From New York Times • Nov. 15, 2021
There was the snarl of an engine somewhere, not the heavy thump of a zeppelin but something higher like the drone of a hornet It drifted in and out of hearing.
From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
