dirigible

plural dirigibles

1. aeronauticsA self-propelled airship that can be steered.

   People had time to think up some questions, including reporters who shouted “Are you going to shoot down the balloon?” at President Biden shortly before the dirigible came down.

   2023 February 4, Katie Rogers, “Look! Up in the Sky! It’s a … Chinese Spy Balloon?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   2 more examples

   Do you know, Louis, of any great secret military camp where a surprise fleet of dirigibles and flying machines of a new and terrible pattern is being formed by a far-seeing Government as a reserve against the day of Armageddon?

   1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC

   On the opposite wall, the R101 tragedy is recalled by the airship's tattered ensign in a glass case, a plaque from the Royal Airship Works and a photograph of the dirigible at her moorings.

   1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 101

comparative more dirigible · superlative most dirigible

1. steerable