RICOCHET (ricochetted, ricochetting)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: ricochetted    , ricochetting   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ricochet mean? 

• RICOCHET (noun)
  The noun RICOCHET has 1 sense:

1. a glancing rebound

  Familiarity information: RICOCHET used as a noun is very rare.

• RICOCHET (verb)
  The verb RICOCHET has 1 sense:

1. spring back; spring away from an impact

  Familiarity information: RICOCHET used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RICOCHET (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A glancing rebound

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

carom; ricochet

Hypernyms ("ricochet" is a kind of...):

backlash; rebound; recoil; repercussion (a movement back from an impact)

Derivation:

ricochet (spring back; spring away from an impact)

• RICOCHET (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they ricochet    ... he / she / it ricochets   
Past simple: ricocheted    / ricochetted   
Past participle: ricocheted    / ricochetted   
-ing form: ricocheting    / ricochetting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Spring back; spring away from an impact

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

bounce; bound; rebound; recoil; resile; reverberate; ricochet; spring; take a hop

Context example:

These particles do not resile but they unite after they collide

Hypernyms (to "ricochet" is one way to...):

bound; jump; leap; spring (move forward by leaps and bounds)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "ricochet"):

kick; kick back; recoil (spring back, as from a forceful thrust)

bound off; skip (bound off one point after another)

carom (rebound after hitting)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Derivation:

ricochet (a glancing rebound)

 Context examples 

We had no ricochet to fear, and though one popped in through the roof of the log-house and out again through the floor, we soon got used to that sort of horse-play and minded it no more than cricket.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

With the support from a NASA Exobiology grant and NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute, or SSERVI, researchers at the Southwest Research Institute, or SwRI, and University of Maryland have created high-resolution impact simulations that show significant portions of a large planetesimal’s core could penetrate all the way down to merge with Earth’s core—or ricochet back into space and escape the planet entirely.

(NASA-funded Simulations Show How Massive Collisions Delivered Metal to Early Earth, NASA)

Outside the house came the sound of a pistol-shot; the glass of the window was shattered with a bullet, which, ricochetting from the top of the embrasure, struck the far wall of the room.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)