envelope (n.)

  1. a flat (usually rectangular) container for a letter, thin package, etc.

  2. any wrapper or covering

  3. a curve that is tangent to each of a family of curves

  4. a natural covering (as by a fluid); the spacecraft detected an envelope of gas around the comet'

  5. the maximum operating capability of a system (especially an aircraft); test pilots try to push the envelope'

  6. the bag containing the gas in a balloon

    [ Syn: gasbag ]

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
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