RICOCHET • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Ricochet

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/rˈɪkəʃˌeɪ/ Listen

noun

Ricochet n.

A rebound or skipping, as of a bullet bouncing off a hard surface, or off the ground when a gun is fired at a low angle of elevation, or of a flat stone thrown along the surface of water.

A peculiar gait used by certain animals such as the kangaroo who move by a type of bouncing motion. "Kangaroos and wallabies (macropodids) as well as kangaroo mice and jerboas, locate themselves differently, though, and do not use the forelimbs at all in their distinctive modus locatus, to which Muybridge applied the term "ricochet",..."

Ricochet firing (Mil.), the firing of guns or howitzers, usually with small charges, at an elevation of only a few degrees, so as to cause the balls or shells to bound or skip along the ground.

verb

Ricochet v. t. (past & past part. ricocheted or ricochetted; pres. part. ricocheting or ricochetting) To operate upon by ricochet firing. See Ricochet, n. (R.)

Ricochet v. i. (past & past part. ricocheted or ricochetted; pres. part. ricocheting or ricochetting) 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.

See images of 'Ricochet'

Etymology of 'Ricochet'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Ricochet" Quotes from Famous Books

... could only learn, as it were, by ricochet what was going on. My grandmother never set pen to paper. Her tongue to guide was trouble enough to her without setting down words on paper to rise up in judgment against her. True, my father wrote regularly to inquire if my professor had any new light on the high things of Plato, the Iberian ...

— The Dew of Their Youth • S. R. Crockett

... remember why a passage was uncleanly written; to recall (let us fancy, with a sigh) the tones of the bellman, the chill of the early, windy morning, and the very line his own romantic self was scribing at the moment. The man, you will perceive was making reminiscences—a sort of pleasure by ricochet, which comforts many in distress, and turns some others into sentimental libertines: and the whole book, if you will but look at it in that way, is seen to be a work of art to ...

— Harvard Classics Volume 28 - Essays English and American • Various

... of the wall and troops were marching in single file as near to the transport as possible. Two horses were being led down the middle of the street. Just before they reached me the nose of one of the horses suddenly was gashed and a stream of blood poured out. Just a ricochet, and it decided me. Despatch riders have to take care of themselves when H.Q. are eight miles away by road and there is no wire. I put my motor-cycle under cover and walked the ...

— Adventures of a Despatch Rider • W. H. L. Watson

... Captain W. N. Pendleton, his battery of light, smooth-bore guns, manned principally by the youths whose rector he had been, proved more effective in battle than the long-range rifle-guns of the enemy. The character of the ground brought the forces into close contact, and the ricochet of the round balls carried havoc into the columns of the enemy, while the bolts of their rifle-guns, if they missed their object, penetrated harmlessly ...

— The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government • Jefferson Davis

... Charlotte Bronte, Dickens, Tolstoi, Mr. Howells himself—all these have their favorite distances, and all are different and cannot be confused. But a young writer usually starts in some uncertainty on this point. He has to find his range, and will quite likely lead off with a miss or a ricochet, as Mr. Hardy led off with Desperate Remedies before finding the target with Under the Greenwood Tree. Now Mr. Hope—the application of these profound remarks is coming at last—being a young writer, hovers in choice between ...

— Adventures in Criticism • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

More quotes...