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bolide

[boh-lahyd, -lid]
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noun Astronomy.

a large, brilliant meteor, especially one that explodes; fireball.

Origin of bolide

1850–55; < French < Greek bolid- (stem of bolís) missile
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for bolide

comet, fireball, meteorite, meteoroid

Examples from the Web for bolide

Contemporary Examples of bolide

Historical Examples of bolide

  • The Bolide; she and the Enterprise had made a raid on Ithunn.

    Space Viking

    Henry Beam Piper

  • The bolide was not white-hot, then, as when it passed over Thrawn Island.

    Creatures of the Abyss

    Murray Leinster

  • This probably refers to an unusually large “bolide” or “fireball.”

  • It said blandly that a bolide—a slow-moving, large meteoric object—had been observed by radar to be descending to earth.

    Operation Terror

    William Fitzgerald Jenkins

  • Everybody's over at the tracking station, arguing about the bolide that went over last night.

    Creatures of the Abyss

    Murray Leinster

British Dictionary definitions for bolide

bolide

noun

a large exceptionally bright meteor that often explodesAlso called: fireball

Word Origin for bolide

C19: from French, from bolis missile; see ballista
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012