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Pilot   /pˈaɪlət/   Listen
noun
Pilot  n.  
1.
(Naut.) One employed to steer a vessel; a helmsman; a steersman.
2.
Specifically, a person duly qualified, and licensed by authority, to conduct vessels into and out of a port, or in certain waters, for a fixed rate of fees.
3.
Figuratively: A guide; a director of another through a difficult or unknown course.
4.
An instrument for detecting the compass error.
5.
The cowcatcher of a locomotive. (U.S.)
6.
(Aeronautics) One who flies, or is qualified to fly, an airplane, balloon, or other flying machine.
7.
(Mach.) A short plug at the end of a counterbore to guide the tool. Pilots are sometimes made interchangeable.
8.
(Mining) The heading or excavation of relatively small dimensions, first made in the driving of a larger tunnel.
9.
(Television) A filmed or taped episode of a proposed television series, produced as an example of the series. It may be shown only to those television broadcast executives who may decide whether to buy the rights to the series, or aired to test viewer reaction or to interest sponsors. Also called pilot film or pilot tape.
Pilot balloon, a small balloon sent up in advance of a large one, to show the direction and force of the wind.
Pilot bird. (Zool.)
(a)
A bird found near the Caribbee Islands; so called because its presence indicates to mariners their approach to these islands.
(b)
The black-bellied plover. (Local, U.S.)
Pilot boat, a strong, fast-sailing boat used to carry and receive pilots as they board and leave vessels.
Pilot bread, ship biscuit.
Pilot cloth, a coarse, stout kind of cloth for overcoats.
Pilot engine, a locomotive going in advance of a train to make sure that the way is clear.
Pilot fish. (Zool)
(a)
A pelagic carangoid fish (Naucrates ductor); so named because it is often seen in company with a shark, swimming near a ship, on account of which sailors imagine that it acts as a pilot to the shark.
(b)
The rudder fish (Seriola zonata).
Pilot jack, a flag or signal hoisted by a vessel for a pilot.
Pilot jacket, a pea jacket.
Pilot nut (Bridge Building), a conical nut applied temporarily to the threaded end of a pin, to protect the thread and guide the pin when it is driven into a hole.
Pilot snake (Zool.)
(a)
A large North American snake (Coluber obsoleus). It is lustrous black, with white edges to some of the scales. Called also mountain black snake.
(b)
The pine snake.
Pilot whale. (Zool.) Same as Blackfish, 1.


verb
Pilot  v. t.  (past & past part. piloted; pres. part. piloting)  
1.
To direct the course of, as of a ship, where navigation is dangerous.
2.
Figuratively: To guide, as through dangers or difficulties. "The art of piloting a state."
3.
(Aeronautics) To fly, or act as pilot of (an aircraft); to operate (an airplane).





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Pilot" Quotes from Famous Books



... probably had for some months been making preparations for a voyage of discovery under this patent. So energetic was he, that two barks were prepared and dispatched from the west of England on the 27th of April. They were under the commands of Captains Amidas and Barlow, with Simeon Fernando as pilot, who, it may be presumed from the name, was a Spaniard, and no doubt had been on this coast before. They took the route by way of the Canaries and West-India Islands, and by the tenth of May had reached the former, and by the tenth of June ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. I, No. V, May, 1862 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various
... forward shortly after dawn, he had succeeded in borrowing a spare sou-wester and pair of sea boots from the second officer, and, equipped in these and a rubber coat, leaving nothing but his nose and mouth in evidence, he was boosted up the narrow stairway to the shelter of the pilot-house on the uppermost deck—the Idaho had no bridge—and there he saw the sun come up to the meridian and the sea go gradually down as the steamer found smoother waters under the lee of San Ildefonso. Only lightly laden, the stanch ...
— A Wounded Name • Charles King
... the Narwhal, or Sea-unicorn, with a wonderful tusk, which is really a big tooth, some six feet long. Another one, the Bottle-nose Whale, has a long, narrow "beak," and is sometimes washed up on our shores. The Pilot Whale is also seen in herds in ...
— Within the Deep - Cassell's "Eyes And No Eyes" Series, Book VIII. • R. Cadwallader Smith
... colleagues, although but little inferior in size, had "no show" whatever. Everybody crowded around Jumbo, stuffing him with bushels of oranges and apples, while the other elephants were entirely ignored. As elephants are intelligent animals, is it not probable that Pilot, the next in size to Jumbo, went mad and had to be shot because he was jealous of the exclusive attentions bestowed on his rival? In aesthetics, this Jumboism, this exaggerated desire for mammoth dimensions, seems ...
— Chopin and Other Musical Essays • Henry T. Finck
... thy face. But oh, beware! The way seems smooth.—One step may mean thy fall! Light is the skiff that bears thee down the stream, Advance upon the silvery, shining waves, Past gaily-flowered banks, where thou would'st pause.— Ah, gentle pilot, is thy skill so sure? Beyond thee roars the sea! Oh, venture not To quit these flowery banks' secure embrace, Else will the current seize thy slender craft And sweep thee out upon the great gray sea.— Why that fixed ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VI. • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke


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