cruise missile
noun
a winged guided missile designed to deliver a conventional or nuclear warhead by flying at low altitudes to avoid detection by radar.
RELATED CONTENT
“Mystery missile” web sensation may have simply been a “contrail.” What does that mean?A mysterious event in the sky outside of Los Angeles last week grabbed the attention of the media and conspiracy theorists. Was it a secret missile test? Even the Pentagon seemed flummoxed. This week, the military weighed in, dismissing it as the contrail of an ordinary jet. Not to be confused with a coelacanth, the Contras, or any conspiracy-themed topic, a contrail is the benign conjoining of “condensation” and …
Nearby words
- cruft,
- cruikshank,
- cruikshank, george,
- cruise,
- cruise control,
- cruise ship,
- cruiser,
- cruiserweight,
- cruiseway,
- cruising radius
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for cruise missile
The U.S. campaign in Yemen has used conventional weaponry on occasion: sorties by Harriers and even some cruise-missile strikes.
The cruise-missile attacks were aimed largely at degrading Libya's antiaircraft defenses, which were considerable.
cruise missile
noun
an air-breathing low-flying subsonic missile that is continuously powered and guided throughout its flight and carries a warhead
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
cruise missile
A military missile equipped with an onboard computer that allows it to guide itself on a preprogrammed course over long distances by sensing the terrain and comparing it to maps stored in its memory. (See smart weapons (see also smart weapons).)
Note
Cruise missiles first came into public awareness during the Persian Gulf War.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.