auger in

intransitive verb

augered in; augering in; augers in

aviation, informal

: to crash catastrophically

Kinch went into a tumble during his record flight and came out of it at low altitude, as Yeager had done. That was just twenty days before Mel Apt augered in.

—Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff, 1979

The plane flipped upside down and augered in, killing him.

—Dan McKinnon, Rescue Pilot, 2002

Word History

Etymology

probably derivative of auger entry 1 (if originally from the notion that a propeller aircraft flying straight into the ground would excavate a hole as if it were an auger)

First Known Use

1944, in the meaning defined above

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