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Glite Dictionary
👟 A soft pad 💄 A makeup compact 🚤 A layer of air
air cushion

air cushion

4.4
A layer of air under a vehicle that lifts it slightly above the ground
  • noun
  • /ɛr ˈkʌʃən/
  • Specialized
translation icon : capa de aire
  • The hovercraft glided smoothly over the water thanks to its air cushion, allowing it to bypass obstacles effortlessly.

Examples

  • Using an air cushion system, the vehicle can travel across various surfaces without touching the ground.

  • The police car, which looked like a miniature barge and rode on an air cushion just a few centimeters above the ground, set off at an amazingly slow speed.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • The air cushion technology enables the craft to hover at a low altitude, enhancing its stability during transit.

Synonyms

cushion
vsair cushion
  • Specialized
22 2.7

A layer of air or material that reduces force when one thing hits another

is the specific trapped air layer that supports craft a short distance above surfaces
hovercraft
vsair cushion
  • Specialized
11 6.4

A vehicle that travels over water or land on a layer of air

is the trapped air layer that lifts vehicles a short distance above the surface

Surface Forms

air cushion singular
air cushions plural

Morphology

air + cushion

While 'air' + 'cushion' transparently signals a type of cushion or pad, the specific sense here — a cosmetic compact with a sponge saturated with foundation — is a specialized, culture/industry-specific usage that a B1 learner knowing the basic words would not reliably infer. The phrase is therefore partially compositional (it names a kind of 'cushion') but its cosmetic meaning is not predictable without prior exposure.

Etymology

Air cushion comes from the image of a vehicle floating on a layer of trapped air that acts like a soft cushion under its hull. That layer of air lifts and supports the craft, so the phrase means 'a layer of air that lifts and supports a vehicle'.