| n. | 1. | |
| 1. | A device made of a piece of cloth, usually silk, attached to multiple chords fastened to a harness; when attached to a person or object falling through the air, it opens from a folded configuration into an umbrella-shaped form, thus slowing the rate of descent so that a safe descent and landing may be made through the air from an airplane, balloon, or other high point. It is commonly used for descending to the ground from a flying airplane, as for military operations (as of airborne troops) or in an emergency, or for sport. In the case of use as a sport, the descent from an airplane by parachute is called sky diving. Some older versions of parachute were more rigid, and were shaped somewhat in the form of an umbrella. |
| 2. | (Zool.) A web or fold of skin which extends between the legs of certain mammals, as the flying squirrels, colugo, and phalangister. |
| v. i. | 1. | TO descend to th ground from an airplane or other high place using a parachute; as, when the plane stalled, he parachuted safely to the ground. |
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