Definitions

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

  • noun The deflection of radiation or particles by electromagnetic or nuclear forces through angles greater than 90° to the initial direction of travel.
  • noun The radiation or particles so deflected.

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

  • noun physics The deflection of particles and/or radiation through angles greater than 90 degrees to the original direction of travel.
  • noun The particles and/or radiation deflected in this manner.
  • noun military A portion of the energy of electromagnetic radiation such as a laser or radio waves that is scattered back in the direction of the source of radiation by an obscurant.
  • noun computing The sending of IP packets to essentially random addresses in response to incoming packets that have a spoofed origin.
  • verb To scatter particles and/or radiation back to the direction from which they come.

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

  • verb scatter (radiation) by the atoms of the medium through which it passes

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Back-formation from backscattering.

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