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Glite Dictionary
MANPAD

MANPAD

1 9.6
A shoulder-fired missile one person carries to hit low-flying aircraft
  • noun
  • /ˈmænˌpæd/
  • Specialized
translation icon : MANPAD
  • The sale of manpads to unauthorized groups poses a serious risk to civil aviation safety.
  • MANPAD missile

Examples

  • During the conflict, insurgents used manpads to target enemy aircraft with alarming success.

  • Understanding the crucial nature of the Assad/Iran alliance for the MB: could Benghazi have been an Iranian operation against the manpads going to Free Syria, and hang it all if it gets Obama kicked out?

    Blog text (9)

  • Oh, and close relatives of the manpad can be very effective against attack helicopters.

    Blog text (20)

  • Second, Manpads are not the only means of bringing down aircraft.

    Blog text (5)

  • Works with longbow vs. horse-mounted armor, and manpads vs. modern armor.

    Blog text (20)

  • There is a difference this time, though the military advances Hamas has made over the past few months, smuggled MANPAD air defense weapons from Libya, rockets with advanced guidance systems, and double the range of anything Israel had imagined are not the telling factor.

    Blog text (5)

  • There are now reports that the Syrian rebels (using manpads from Libya) are taking out Assad's fighter jets.

    Blog text (32)

  • According to a UN panel, there were "transfers of Libyan MANPADs and other short-range surface-to-air missiles" to Tunisia as well.

    Academic text (2015)

  • The military has deployed several manpads to protect the airbase from potential aerial attacks.

Synonyms

Stinger
vsMANPAD
  • Specialized
22 9.6

A small guided missile fired from the shoulder to hit low-flying aircraft

is the general one-person shoulder-launched type without that specific guidance detail
surface-to-air missile
vsMANPAD
  • Specialized
19 6.3

A weapon launched from the ground or a ship to destroy aircraft in the sky

is a small portable shoulder-launched system designed for single-person use
SAM
vsMANPAD
  • Specialized
3 6.0

A missile fired from land or a ship to hit aircraft

is the one-person shoulder-fired variant rather than launch from fixed sites

How Portable

MANPAD
  • Specialized
1 9.6
surface-to-air missile system
  • Specialized
1 7.9

Surface Forms

MANPAD singular
MANPADs plural

Morphology

MANPAD = M + A + N + P + A + D

MANPAD is an initialism (letters stand for a multiword phrase) and does not decompose into productive English morphemes that a learner could use to infer meaning.

Etymology

MANPAD is a military short name from MAN-Portable Air Defence, where MAN-Portable means 'portable by one person' and Air Defence means 'protection against aircraft'. So a MANPAD is a shoulder-launched missile that one person can carry to stop low-flying planes.