Word.ws English Dictionary

rolling scissors

US/ˈɹol.ɪŋ ˈsɪz.ɚz/

rolling scissors noun: a form of the scissors defensive maneuver in dogfighting, involving pulling up, rolling one's aircraft towards that of the attacker, and pulling the nose of one's aircraft towards the attacker to force an overshoot, resulting in the two aircraft barrel-rolling around each other as each attempts to gain the advantage.

rolling scissors: a form of the scissors defensive maneuver in dogfighting, involving pulling up, rolling one's...
Image: Chief of Naval Air Training, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

rolling scissors (countable and uncountable, plural rolling scissors)

  1. (uncountable) A form of the scissors defensive maneuver in dogfighting, involving pulling up, rolling one's aircraft towards that of the attacker, and pulling the nose of one's aircraft towards the attacker to force an overshoot, resulting in the two aircraft barrel-rolling around each other as each attempts to gain the advantage.
    • Remember: maintain your aircraft's energy, keep his tail on your line of sight, and relentlessly pursue the insufferable oaf that insulted your driving skills. If he gets behind you, break out the rolling scissors and force an overshoot.2021 March 19, Bosnian Ape Society, 4:36 from the start, in Is Your Car Safe From Supermaneuverable Air-Defense Fighter Aircraft?, archived from the original on 07 Aug 2022
    1. (countable) An instance of the above dogfighting maneuver.

Forms of rolling scissors

pluralrolling scissors

Questions about rolling scissors

What does rolling scissors mean?
Rolling scissors means a form of the scissors defensive maneuver in dogfighting, involving pulling up, rolling one's aircraft towards that of the attacker, and pulling the nose of one's aircraft towards the attacker to force an overshoot, resulting in the two aircraft barrel-rolling around each other as each attempts to gain the advantage.
What part of speech is rolling scissors?
Rolling scissors is a noun.
How do you pronounce rolling scissors?
Rolling scissors is pronounced /ˈɹol.ɪŋ ˈsɪz.ɚz/ (US).
What is the plural of rolling scissors?
The plural of rolling scissors is rolling scissors.

Words near rolling scissors in the dictionary

  1. rolling presses
  2. rolling programme
  3. rolling programmes
  4. rolling resistance
  5. rolling resistances
  6. rolling scissors
  7. rolling skin disease
  8. rolling spider
  9. rolling spiders
  10. rolling start
  11. rolling starts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rolling scissors (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.

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