Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to air or other gases.
  • adjective Of or relating to pneumatics.
  • adjective Run by or using compressed air.
  • adjective Filled with air, especially compressed air.
  • adjective Zoology Having cavities filled with air, as the bones of certain birds.
  • adjective Of or relating to the pneuma; spiritual.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In theology, relating to the spirit or pneuma, as distinguished from both soul and body; spiritual. See soul and spirit.
  • noun An inflatable rubber tire.
  • noun A vehicle, as a bicycle, motor-cycle, or motorcar, lifted with inflatable rubber tires.
  • Of or pertaining to air, or gases in general, or their properties; also, employing (compressed) air or other gas as a motive power, as, pneumatic experiments; a pneumatic engine.
  • Consisting of or resembling air; having the properties of an elastic fluid; gaseous.
  • Moved or played by means of air: as, a pneumatic instrument of music.
  • In zoology: Filled with air; fitted to receive or contain air; pneumatized, as the air-cells or the bones of birds
  • Of or pertaining to the respiratory system of any animal
  • A caisson within which compressed air excludes the water, permitting necessary operations to be carried on inside it.
  • noun In organ-building, one of the members of a pneumatic action, whether a bellows or a tube. See pneumatic action, above.
  • noun Same as pneumatology, 2, where see quotation.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun archaic A vehicle, as a bicycle, the wheels of which are fitted with pneumatic tires.
  • adjective Consisting of, or resembling, air; having the properties of an elastic fluid; gaseous; opposed to dense or solid.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to air, or to elastic fluids or their properties; pertaining to pneumatics.
  • adjective Moved or worked by pressure or flow of air
  • adjective (Biol.) Fitted to contain air; Having cavities filled with air
  • adjective Adapted for containing compressed air; inflated with air.
  • adjective (Mus.) a contrivance for overcoming the resistance of the keys and other movable parts in an organ, by causing compressed air from the wind chest to move them.
  • adjective a system of tubes, leading to various points, through which letters, packages, etc., are sent, by the flow and pressure of air.
  • adjective a hoisting machine worked by compressed air.
  • adjective a tubular pile or cylinder of large diameter sunk by atmospheric pressure.
  • adjective an air-exhausting or forcing pump.
  • adjective See Atmospheric railway, under Atmospheric.
  • adjective a stout tube closed at one end, and provided with a piston, for showing that the heat produced by compressing a gas will ignite substances.
  • adjective a trough, generally made of wood or sheet metal, having a perforated shelf, and used, when filled with water or mercury, for collecting gases in chemical operations.
  • adjective See Pneumatic dispatch, above.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of or relating to air or other gases
  • adjective Of or relating to pneumatics
  • adjective Powered by, or filled with compressed air
  • adjective zoology Having cavities filled with air
  • adjective Spiritual; Of or relating to the pneuma
  • adjective of a woman well-rounded; full-breasted; bouncy (especially during sex)
  • noun Gnosticism In gnostic theologian Valentinus' triadic grouping of man the highest type; a person focused on spiritual reality (the other two being hylic and psychic).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or relating to or using air (or a similar gas)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French pneumatique, from Latin pneumaticus, from Greek pneumatikos, from pneuma, pneumat-, wind; see pneu- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin pneumaticus, from Ancient Greek πνευματικός (pneumatikos, "relating to wind or air"), from πνεῦμα (pneuma, "wind, air, breath, spirit"), from πνέω (pneō, "I blow, breath").

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Examples

  • It's fitted with what they call a pneumatic cushion -- I mean, if anything goes wrong, the lift falls into a funnel shaped well, made of concrete, which forms a cushion of air, and so breaks the fall.

    The Mystery of the Four Fingers

  • Baltic newts are equipped with a new, normally peaceful, apparatus called the pneumatic drill which is capable of drilling ten metres deep into the best Swedish granite in an hour and can penetrate fifty or sixty metres deep into English chalk in the same time?

    The War with the Newts 2006

  • "I wasn't sure about the word pneumatic," Allison Black said.

    The Times-Journal: News 2010

  • "I wasn't sure about the word pneumatic," Allison Black said.

    The Times-Journal: News 2010

  • "I wasn't sure about the word pneumatic," Allison Black said.

    The Times-Journal: News 2010

  • "I wasn't sure about the word pneumatic," Allison Black said.

    The Times-Journal: News 2010

  • "I wasn't sure about the word pneumatic," Allison Black said.

    The Times-Journal: News 2010

  • "I wasn't sure about the word pneumatic," Allison Black said.

    The Times-Journal: News 2010

  • "I wasn't sure about the word pneumatic," Allison Black said.

    The Times-Journal: News 2010

  • "I wasn't sure about the word pneumatic," Allison Black said.

    The Times-Journal: News 2010

Comments

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  • "A third nurse, a pneumatic black girl in pale pink..." Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

    October 17, 2010

  • And what might a 'pneumatic black girl' be?

    April 9, 2016

  • Methinks that the allusion is to mammary protrusion.

    April 9, 2016