Word.ws English Dictionary

Orion drive

Orion drive noun: a theoretical means to propel spacecraft through space, by detonating nuclear bombs behind the spaceship and riding the nuclear explosions that push against the rear mounted pusher plate.

orion drive: a theoretical means to propel spacecraft through space, by detonating nuclear bombs behind the...
Image: NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

Orion drive (plural Orion drives)

  1. A theoretical means to propel spacecraft through space, by detonating nuclear bombs behind the spaceship and riding the nuclear explosions that push against the rear mounted pusher plate.
  2. An engine using such a method.

Forms of Orion drive

pluralOrion drives

Origin of Orion drive

From Orion + drive, since it originated from Project Orion, a U.S. government study from the 1950s.

Questions about Orion drive

What does Orion drive mean?
Orion drive means a theoretical means to propel spacecraft through space, by detonating nuclear bombs behind the spaceship and riding the nuclear explosions that push against the rear mounted pusher plate.
What part of speech is Orion drive?
Orion drive is a noun.
What is the plural of Orion drive?
The plural of Orion drive is Orion drives.

Words near Orion drive in the dictionary

  1. oriolid
  2. oriolids
  3. oriols
  4. Orion
  5. Orion Arm
  6. Orion drive
  7. Orion drives
  8. Orion Nebula
  9. Orion's Belt
  10. Orion's Sword
  11. Orionid

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Orion drive (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “Orion drive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/orion_drive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.