radars

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of radar.

   Modern warships carry several radars for tracking aircraft and incoming missiles.

   The airport's radars failed briefly during the worst of the storm.

   Note

   The plural belongs only to the countable uses of radar. As a detection method the word is uncountable, so ships are tracked by radar, not by radars. As a type of system or a single installation it counts freely: a warship's several radars, an airport's radars. The figurative sense, a sharp ability to notice things, is countable too. The all-capitals spelling RADAR is now dated.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of radar.

   The control tower radars every aircraft entering the restricted airspace.

   Each night the patrol vessel radars the coastline for unregistered traffic.

   Note

   A transitive verb that always needs an object: the tower radars an aircraft, a vessel radars a coastline. The verb is not limited to equipment, because it also covers scanning "as if with radar," a searching sweep of attention. The same spelling serves as the noun plural. A following object, or a singular subject before it, shows that you are reading the verb.

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