Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To rebound at least once from a surface.
- n. The act or an instance of ricocheting.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The motion of an object which rebounds from a flat surface over which it is passing, as in the case of a stone thrown along the surface of water.
- To bound by touching the earth or the surface of water and glancing off, as a cannon-ball.
Wiktionary
- n. A method of firing a projectile so that it skips along a surface.
- n. An instance of ricocheting; a glancing rebound.
- v. To rebound off something wildly in a seemingly random direction.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A rebound or skipping, as of a ball along the ground when a gun is fired at a low angle of elevation, or of a fiat stone thrown along the surface of water.
- v. To operate upon by ricochet firing. See ricochet, n.
- v. To skip with a rebound or rebounds, as a flat stone on the surface of water, or a cannon ball on the ground. See ricochet, n.
WordNet 3.0
- v. spring back; spring away from an impact
- n. a glancing rebound
Etymologies
- French, from Old French, give-and-take.
Examples
“For a dozen heartbeats Ferrol stared at the display, listening to the word ricochet around his brain.”
Warhorse
“One cannot help jumping when death, in the form of a piece of flying lead, hits the rail beside him, or the mast over his head, or whines away in a ricochet from the steel shrouds.”
“I was still hearing Acer's name ricochet around the inside of my head.”
Asimov's Science Fiction
“Q: Earlier this year you said you'd prefer the secondary be referred to as ricochet rather than toast.”
“I just didn't understand that the ricochet is the second part you can't hide what you intend, it glows in the dark once you start the path of revenge there's no way to stop the more I try to hurt you the more it hurts me strange, it seems like a character mutation though I have all the means of bringing you fuckers down”
“The angle of fire produces only a rare ricochet which is caught by the aforementioned dirt hill.”
“The senator says he'll now "ricochet" among South Carolina, Iowa and New Hampshire, starting with a Southern swing next week.”
“But if you're outside that charmed circle -- or, even worse, suffer a "ricochet" because of the actions of someone within it -- then Cohen's message is, "Suck it up, bitch, this is a tough town.”
“WHITFIELD: And, Maria, are officials believing, at this point, that at least in the Kuta area, that this explosion took place solely in this restaurant and then, because of the kind of ricochet effect, the other nearby businesses were impacted?”
“Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Saturday warned white commercial farmers against organising themselves to assault landless blacks, saying such attacks could "ricochet".”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ricochet’.
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•Unexpected Pronunciation, Now! with Public Acc...
Inspired to publicity by the conversation at segway. Thanks, pals!
boatswain, clapboard, waistcoat, victuals, forecastle, solder, colonel, ensign, worcestershire sauce, creatinine, coelacanth, banal and 77 more...
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Glancing Blows
glim, glink, glisk, glunch, twire, glint, asquint, fleer, gleek, keek, skelly, flick and 8 more...
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English with Tongue
French words and phrases used by English speakers.
objet d'art, nom de plume, petite, bon voyage, avant-garde, faux pas, faux, touché, répondez, s'il vo..., rouge, papier mâché, joie de vivre and 85 more...
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