blimp

• POS: Noun

CIDE DICTIONARY

blimp, n. [from Colonel Blimp, a fictional character].

•  any elderly pompous reactionary.  [WordNet 1.5]
•  a small nonrigid airship used for observation or as a barrage balloon.  [WordNet 1.5]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

blimp, n.
1 (also (Colonel) Blimp) a proponent of reactionary establishment opinions.
2 a a small non-rigid airship. b a barrage balloon.
3 a soundproof cover for a cine-camera.

Derivative

blimpery n. blimpish adj.

Etymology

20th. c., of uncert. orig.: in sense 1, a pompous, obese, elderly character invented by cartoonist David Low (d. 1963), and used in anti-German or anti-Government drawings before and during the war of 1939-45

THESAURUS

blimp

Bourbon, Colonel Blimp, Graf Zeppelin, aerostat, airship, ballonet, balloon, bloated aristocrat, captive balloon, diehard, dirigible, dirigible balloon, dumpling, fatty, fuddy-duddy, gasbag, heavy, heavyweight, hippo, lighter-than-air craft, lump, pilot balloon, potbelly, reactionarist, reactionist, rigid airship, roly-poly, royalist, sausage, semirigid airship, ship, stuffed shirt, swagbelly, tub, tub of lard, tun, ultraconservative, weather balloon, white, zeppelin