Other forms: cockpits
The cockpit is the front cabin where the pilots fly the plane. In the cockpit, the cockpit door, a cockpit voice recorder.
In airliners the formal term is flight deck, and cockpit is used for smaller aircraft and in ordinary speech. The word also names the driver's compartment in a racing car and the steering well of a sailing boat. Since 2001 the cockpit door on an airliner is armoured and locked. Note the cockpit voice recorder, one of the two black boxes, which is actually orange.
1nouncockpitThe compartment where the pilots fly an aircraft.
“The cockpit door has been locked since take-off.”
synonyms: flight deck
2noundriversThe driver's compartment in a racing car.
“The cockpit reaches about fifty degrees in a long race.”
cockpit is a control compartment.
Also accepted in games: flight deck
A cockpit was a pit where cocks were set to fight — a small enclosed space with people crowded round. Sailors used it for a cramped compartment below decks, and aviation took it from there, so pilots sit in a metaphor from blood sport.
cock + pit.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Travel & Transport, Airport & Flying