ricochet
[rik-uh-shey, rik-uh-shey or, esp. British, rik-uh-shet]
- the motion of an object or a projectile in rebounding or deflecting one or more times from the surface over which it is passing or against which it hits a glancing blow.
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- to move in this way, as a projectile.
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Origin of ricochet
1760–70; < French; origin uncertain
Synonyms
See more synonyms for ricochet on Thesaurus.com2. rebound, deflect, glance.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for ricochet
Contemporary Examples
Overnight, a bar owner was shot in the leg by a ricochet bullet.
At the same time, there are those who ricochet between denial and rationalization.
Historical Examples
Henceforward I could only learn, as it were, by ricochet what was going on.
The Dew of Their YouthS. R. Crockett
The similarity of this bullet to that seen in the ricochet in fig. 32 was exact.
Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900George Henry Makins
Effect of ricochet in the production of severe forms of injury.
Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900George Henry Makins
Perhaps he had mistaken it for the ricochet of a round shot.
The Rifle RangersCaptain Mayne Reid
So I tache, as they say at musketry-instruction, by direct and ricochet fire.
Soldier StoriesRudyard Kipling
ricochet
- (intr) (esp of a bullet) to rebound from a surface or surfaces, usually with a characteristic whining or zipping sound
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- the motion or sound of a rebounding object, esp a bullet
- an object, esp a bullet, that ricochets
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Word Origin
C18: from French, of unknown origin
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
Word Origin and History for ricochet
v.
1758, originally in a military sense, from French ricochet (n.) "the skipping of a shot, or of a flat stone on water" (see ricochet (n.). Related: Ricochetted; ricochetting.
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n.
1769, from ricochet (v.) or French ricochet "the skipping of a shot or of a flat stone on water," but in earliest French use (15c.) "verbal to-and-fro," and only in the phrase fable du ricochet, an entertainment in which the teller of a tale skillfully evades questions, and chanson du ricochet, a kind of repetitious song; of uncertain origin.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper