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automatic pilot

noun

Also called automatic, autopilot, gyropilot, robot.��Aeronautics.��an airborne electronic control system that automatically maintains a preset heading and attitude.

automatic pilot

noun

Also called: autopilot.��a device that automatically maintains an aircraft on a preset course
informal��acting without conscious thought because of tiredness, shock, or familiarity with the task being performed

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Word History and Origins

Origin of automatic pilot¹

First recorded in 1915–20

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Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

on automatic pilot, functioning in an unthinking or reflexive manner.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

The DNC’s current executive committee is a bastion of the party establishment, unlikely to signal to grassroots Democrats and the general public that the party is no longer locked into automatic pilot.

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“The sailboat crew were either unable to avoid collision” or they could have been down below with Theros on automatic pilot, an anonymous source told Saltwire.

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Jerome H. Powell, her successor as Fed chair, said it was so straightforward that it should be on “automatic pilot” and wouldn’t merit close scrutiny.

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Claiming that there are no significant differences between the two parties is a form of super-ideological gaslighting on automatic pilot.

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Johnson argued that keeping spending on “automatic pilot” was threatening to make the programs go “bankrupt.”

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

automaticity automatic pistol

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