ricochet

[rik-uh-shey, rik-uh-shey or, esp. British, rik-uh-shet]

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noun

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.

verb (used without object), ric·o·cheted [rik-uh-sheyd, rik-uh-sheyd] /ˌrɪk əˈʃeɪd, ˈrɪk əˌʃeɪd/, ric·o·chet·ing [rik-uh-shey-ing, rik-uh-shey-ing] /ˌrɪk əˈʃeɪ ɪŋ, ˈrɪk əˌʃeɪ ɪŋ/ or (especially British) ric·o·chet·ted [rik-uh-shet-id] /ˈrɪk əˌʃɛt ɪd/, ric·o·chet·ting [rik-uh-shet-ing] /ˈrɪk əˌʃɛt ɪŋ/.

to move in this way, as a projectile.

Origin of ricochet

1760–70; < French; origin uncertain

Synonyms for ricochet

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2. rebound, deflect, glance.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for ricochet

deflect, return, recoil, backfire, boomerang

Examples from the Web for ricochet

Contemporary Examples of ricochet

Overnight, a bar owner was shot in the leg by a ricochet bullet.
In Rome’s Riots, Cries for Mussolini and Attacks on Refugees
Barbie Latza Nadeau
November 14, 2014
At the same time, there are those who ricochet between denial and rationalization.
The Mayor McCrack Show
Jonathan Goldsbie
November 1, 2013

Historical Examples of ricochet

Henceforward I could only learn, as it were, by ricochet what was going on.
The Dew of Their Youth
S. R. Crockett
The similarity of this bullet to that seen in the ricochet in fig. 32 was exact.
Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900
George Henry Makins
Effect of ricochet in the production of severe forms of injury.
Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900
George Henry Makins
Perhaps he had mistaken it for the ricochet of a round shot.
The Rifle Rangers
Captain Mayne Reid
So I tache, as they say at musketry-instruction, by direct and ricochet fire.
Soldier Stories
Rudyard Kipling

British Dictionary definitions for ricochet

ricochet

verb -chets, -cheting (-ˌʃeɪɪŋ), -cheted (-ˌʃeɪd), -chets, -chetting (-ˌʃɛtɪŋ) or -chetted (-ˌʃɛtɪd)

(intr) (esp of a bullet) to rebound from a surface or surfaces, usually with a characteristic whining or zipping sound

noun

the motion or sound of a rebounding object, esp a bullet

an object, esp a bullet, that ricochets

Word Origin for ricochet

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

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.

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.