slipstream
/ˈslɪpstriːm
/noun
1A current of air or water driven back by a revolving propeller or jet engine.This aircraft company was awarded a US Army contract to study vectored slipstreams and produce an aircraft that could test the concept....
- As the power comes in, the spiraling slipstream tends to yaw the aircraft to the left, especially at low speed.
- In Nick's case, continuously driving in a slipstream hampered the air flow to cool the engine which created an additional problem.
1.1The partial vacuum created in the wake of a moving vehicle, often used by other vehicles in a race to assist in overtaking.You swing out of a slipstream, overtaking a cyclist, and your helmet starts vibrating with the G-force - one false move and you will be picking gravel out of your teeth for weeks....
- Each rider takes a brief turn at the front, then falls back into the slipstream, where he will expend 30 percent less energy.
- Most every time you ride another racer's slipstream, you'll easily overtake their position long before the meter fills.
2An assisting force regarded as drawing something along behind something else: when the US economy booms, the rest of the world is pulled along in the slipstream...
- It was Ally that we really wanted to punch, but poor old Bridget just got sucked along in Ally's slipstream.
- I was walking behind a woman in the slipstream of her scent and I must admit it was wonderful; I would have followed her to the ends of the earth, but we got to my office building first!
- The ‘Death of God’ might have arrived on the wings of relativism, which glided in on the slipstream of Western rationalism.
verb [no object]
(Especially in motor racing) follow closely behind another vehicle, travelling in its slipstream and awaiting an opportunity to overtake: he then slipstreamed and overtook me again figurative she had a rocky route through the rest of adolescence while I slipstreamed smoothly behind [with object]: I planned to slipstream him in the last lap...
- Except having a long straight and having a car right behind and slipstreaming like I was able to do with Rubens allowed me to pass.
- Clad in blue, Armstrong and his teammates relayed each other along the 64.5km course from Cambrai to Arras, taking turns at the front of their line while the others slipstreamed behind.
- But slipstreaming so closely hinders airflow into the trailing car's radiator and can cause its engine to overheat.