Slipstreamer

Pronunciation varies by accent · noun

Meaning

Someone who follows a slipstream in a race..

Definitions by Sense

1. Someone who follows a slipstream in a race.
2. (figuratively) Someone who goes with the flow; someone who follows with what others are doing.
3. (motor racing) A race in which the shape of the track causes extensive slipstreams to form behind each car.
4. (literature) Someone who writes slipstream fiction ("a genre of fantastic or non-realistic fiction that crosses conventional genre boundaries").

Example Sentences

He headed the leading group over the col, class riders every one, no wheel-suckers keeping the shade of the men doing the work. 'Never gets a tan', they say of the slipstreamers.

Slipstreaming athletes save energy—at the speeds involved in cycling, energy savings can be 33% or more. Obviously the slipstreamer cannot go faster than the leading rider, but if the leader is a powered vehicle capable of great speed then the slipstreaming rider can go correspondingly fast.

Even though horses are racing, they can spot things and that's why they put blinkers on so they can focus better. The best thing is to get your horse in the slipstream of the leader. It's a bit like cycling with its pacemakers and its slipstreamers.

Men are slipstreamers, David. Did you ever see a car follow close behind a big truck to take advantage of the windbreak to make the driving easier? That's the way people are. They'll follow so close they can't see six inches beyond their noses, as long as it makes things easier. And the schools and the teachers are the biggest windbreaks of all.

He had a special bond with my father, a bond that I was hard-pressed to understand, that involved doing stuff. The two of them skied and hiked and fly-fished. I did those things, too, but as a kind of slipstreamer, along for the ride.

Murphy was not Swan's first choice of partner for a case like this, or any case. But he was the only other Murder Squad detective available, since all the rest were up in Dundalk for a double shooting. TP was not only a leadswinger and a slipstreamer, he looked like a right throwback too, with those sideburns and aviator specs, not to mention the wide tie just hiding the gaps between his strained shirt buttons.

Sometimes, on bad days, the group never gets organized. It becomes a herky-jerky mess. Someone gets going too fast for the person and the group loses contact with the leader, losing any benefit from the leader's work. Or mauybe someone is tired and can't take a turn at the lead, leaving a dead spot in the squad. Such "slipstreamers" can be found in all walks of life; people who coast along on the labor of others, but too seldom take their own pull at the front.

[Robert ] Grosseteste in this sense was a slipstreamer. In his book about him, James McEvoy writes, 'Grosseteste's interest in natural questions was both genuine and deep. Part of his motivation for inquiry undoubtedly lay in his religious faith.

Synonyms for slipstreamer

Antonyms for slipstreamer

Word Forms

• slipstreamers

Usage Notes

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