parachute

Borrowed from French parachute, from para- (“protection against”) (as in parasol) and chute (“fall”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈpæɹəʃuːt/

• Audio (US)

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parachute (plural parachutes)

1. (aviation) A device, generally constructed from fabric, that is designed to employ air resistance to control the fall of an object or person, causing them to float instead of falling.
2. (zoology) A web or fold of skin extending between the legs of gliding mammals, such as the flying squirrel and colugo.
3. (BDSM) A small collar which fastens around the scrotum and from which weights can be hung.
   • 1998, Guillaume Dustan, Brad Rumph, transl., In My Room, London: Serpent’s Tail, →ISBN, page 53:

     Under that there are dildos and butt-plugs arranged by size on two shelves: two fat butt-plugs and four small ones, four two-headed dildos, eight ordinary dildos. Under that, the little material hanging on nails: five different pairs of nipple clamps, some clothespins, a parachute for the balls, a dog collar, two hoods, one in leather, one in latex, six cockrings, in steel or leather, regular or with built-in ball-squeezers, two dick sheaths […]

   • 2012, Peggy Sue, Guide to Female Supremacy, London: Gynarchy International Editions / Lulu Press, →ISBN, page 75:

     Parachutes are usually made of leather and can be purchased through most fetish catalogs or stores catering to the BDSM scene.

   • 2016, John Caesar, Wife Scorned!, Lulu.com, →ISBN:

     She came near and grabbed his balls tightly with her left hand, tugging them downward while applying a parachute harness with her right hand. […] His balls stretched downward under the delicious weight.

   • 2022, Mohamed A. Baky Fahmy, “Scrotum in Human Conscience”, in Mohamed A. Baky Fahmy, editor, Normal and Abnormal Scrotum, Cham, Switzerland: Springer, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-83305-3_3, →ISBN, page 22:

     A parachute is a small collar, usually made from leather, which fastens around the scrotum, and from which weights can be hung.

4. A piece of cloth used in physical education often colorful and surrounded by handles.

parachute (third-person singular simple present parachutes, present participle parachuting, simple past and past participle parachuted)

1. (intransitive) To jump, fall, descend, etc. using such a device.
   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

     Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.

2. (transitive) To introduce into a place using such a device.

   The soldiers were parachuted behind enemy lines.

3. (transitive) To place (somebody) in an organisation in a position of authority without their having previous experience there; used with in or into.

• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “parachute”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Borrowed from French parachute.

• IPA^(key): /ˌpaː.raːˈʃyt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pa‧ra‧chute
• Rhymes: -yt

parachute m (plural parachutes, diminutive parachuutje n)

1. parachute

   Synonym: valscherm

• parachutespringen
• parachutesprong
• parachutist
• remparachute

• → Papiamentu: parachüt

From para- (“protection against”) +‎ chute (“fall”).

• IPA^(key): /pa.ʁa.ʃyt/

• audio

  (file)

parachute m (plural parachutes)

1. parachute (device designed to control the fall of an object)
2. (BDSM) parachute (scrotum collar from which weights can be hung)
   • 1996, Guillaume Dustan, Dans ma chambre [In My Room], Paris: POL, page 71; quoted in David Caron, My Father and I: The Marais and the Queerness of Community (in English), Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2009, →ISBN, page 106:

     En dessous il y a les godes et les plugs, rangés par taille sur deux étagères: deux gros plugs, quatre petits, quatre godes doubles, huit godes simples. En dessous il y a le petit matériel, accroché à des clous: cinq paires de pinces à seins différentes, des pinces à linge, un parachute pour les couilles, tin collier de chien, deux cagoules, une en cuir, une en latex, six cockrings, en acier, en cuir, simples ou avec serre-couilles incorporé, deux étuis à bite […]

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

• parachute doré

• → Azerbaijani: paraşüt
• → Albanian: parashutë
• → Dutch: parachute
  • → Papiamentu: parachüt
• → English: parachute
• → Ottoman Turkish: پاراشوت‎ (paraşüt)
  • Turkish: paraşüt
• → Russian: парашю́т (parašút)
  • → Armenian: պարաշյուտ (parašyut)
  • → Kazakh: парашют (paraşüt)

• “parachute”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• crapahute, crapahuté