cruise missile
- a winged guided missile designed to deliver a conventional or nuclear warhead by flying at low altitudes to avoid detection by radar.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for cruise missile
Contemporary Examples
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
- an air-breathing low-flying subsonic missile that is continuously powered and guided throughout its flight and carries a warhead
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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).)
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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.