course-correct

verb

To alter the current course of an aircraft or other vessel to ensure it is directed towards the intended destination.

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Meanings

verbcourse-correct (third-person singular simple present course-corrects, present participle course-correcting, simple past and past participle course-corrected)

present singular third person course-corrects · participle present course-correcting · participle past course-corrected · past course-corrected

  1. transitiveaeronauticsTo alter the current course of an aircraft or other vessel to ensure it is directed towards the intended destination.
  2. ambitransitiveTo make adjustments to an ongoing process or project in order to achieve a desired outcome.

    For Manis, the league is an opportunity to course-correct a career beleaguered by bumps and false starts. She is joined by women at various stages of their basketball careers, many focused on redemptive arcs of their own.

    2022 February 23, Tamryn Spruill, “Women’s Basketball Players Get a New Lifeline, Close to Home”, in The New York Times
    1 more example

    I’ve occasionally gone on TV and movie fasts, usually to course-correct after overindulging in too many screen-based activities. But books are a constant and during no period of my life was I more immersed in books than as a teenager.

    2017 January 21, Bim Adewunmi, “Why I love... author Nicola Yoon”, in The Guardian

Origin

A back-formation from course correction.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

course-correct. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/course-correct

MLA

“course-correct.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/course-correct. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “course-correct,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/course-correct.

Source: course-correct on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.