Definition of "airlift" []

• A system of transporting troops, civilian passengers, or supplies by air, as in an emergency or when surface routes are blocked. (noun)
• A flight transporting troops, civilian passengers, or supplies under such conditions. (noun)
• To transport in an airlift. (verb-transitive)
• To transport troops, civilian passengers, or supplies in an airlift. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "During the Berlin airlift, I was in Berlin as a summer student at the Siemens company, and I decided to go West via one of the empty airlift return flights."
• "Yet always, as with a Berlin airlift or a Greek-Turkish program, or a Marshall Plan, a way has been found to deal with the problem short of major war."
• "Whereas Truman's Cold War policies — the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the Berlin airlift — were supported by his 1948 opponent, Thomas Dewey, and largely continued by his successor, Dwight Eisenhower, many of Bush's post-9/11 policies — including the prosecution of the war in Iraq and the conduct of relations with allies such as France and Germany — have been harshly attacked by Kerry."