Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to the study of the dynamics of projectiles.
  • adjective Of or relating to the study of the internal action of firearms.
  • adjective Of or relating to projectiles, their motion, or their effects.
  • idiom (go ballistic) To become very angry or irrational.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to ballistics, or the scientific construction and use of projectiles.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to the ballista, or to the art of hurling stones or missile weapons by means of an engine.
  • adjective Pertaining to ballistics{2}, or to a projectile in a gravitational field.
  • adjective colloq. frenzied; very angry; -- used mostly in the phrase go ballistic.
  • adjective an instrument consisting of a mass of wood or other material suspended as a pendulum, for measuring the force and velocity of projectiles by means of the arc through which their impact impels it.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective not comparable Or relating to ballistics.
  • adjective comparable Or relating to projectiles moving under their own momentum, air drag, gravity and sometimes rocket power
  • adjective comparable, slang Very angry.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective relating to or characteristic of the motion of objects moving under their own momentum and the force of gravity

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From ballista.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin ballista ("a military siege engine for throwing stones").

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Examples

Comments

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  • the ballistic quest for technical proficiency has always found its target...

    April 22, 2009