ricochet

Borrowed from French ricochet, of uncertain origin.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɪk.ə.ʃeɪ/, /ˈɹɪk.ə.ʃɛt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ, -ɛt
• Hyphenation: ric‧o‧chet

ricochet (plural ricochets)

1. (military) A method of firing a projectile so that it skips along a surface.
2. An instance of ricocheting; a glancing rebound.
   • 1970, “Child in Time”, in Deep Purple in Rock, performed by Deep Purple:

     And you've not been hit / By flying lead / You'd better close your eyes / Bow your head / Wait for the ricochet

ricochet (third-person singular simple present ricochets, present participle ricocheting or ricochetting, simple past and past participle ricocheted or ricochetted)

1. To rebound off something wildly in a seemingly random direction.
   • 2018 June 24, Sam Wallace, “Harry Kane scores hat-trick as England hit Panama for six to secure World Cup knock-out qualification”, in Telegraph (UK)‎, retrieved 24 June 2018:

     Everything that could go right for England did although they never felt lucky and they chuckled at Kane’s third that ricocheted off his heel while he was looking the other way.

   • 2023, “It Must Change”, in My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross, performed by ANOHNI:

     The truth is that our love / Will ricochet through eternity

   • 2023 August 7, Suzanne Wrack, “England beat Nigeria on penalties to reach Women’s World Cup quarter-finals”, in The Guardian‎:

     Before the interval an Alibade strike ricocheted off the back of Bright after Ifeoma Onumonu’s cutback. Then in added time Uchenna Kanu smacked a header off the top of the bar.

2. (military) To operate upon by ricochet firing.

• ricochet on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Uncertain. The word first appears in the phrases chanson du/de riochet, fable du ricochet. This is apparently related to other story-titles such as the fable du rouge kokelet; other dialectal terms such as ripoton (“duckling”) and Norman recoquet (“chick”) has led to theories that the word originally indicated a "young cock". The sense-development is unclear.

• IPA^(key): /ʁi.kɔ.ʃɛ/

• Audio:

  (file)

ricochet m (plural ricochets)

1. rebound; ricochet
2. (games) ducks and drakes, stone skipping

• “ricochet”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.