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missile

[mis-uhl or, especially Brit., -ahyl]

Example Sentences Origin

noun

an object or weapon for throwing, hurling, or shooting, as a stone, bullet, or arrow.

guided missile.

ballistic missile.

adjective

capable of being thrown, hurled, or shot, as from the hand or a gun.

used or designed for discharging missiles.

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Missile is always a great word to know.

So is slumgullion. Does it mean:

a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.

a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.

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Origin:
1600–10; < Latin, neuter of missilis, equivalent to miss(us) (past participle of mittere to send, throw) + -ilis -ile

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To missile

Example Sentences

Europe can't afford to be held hostage by the threat of a missile attack.

They evacuated in haste when this missile blew past them or perhaps in response to the impact itself.

Full-bore federal-subsidised research on missile defense.

EXPAND

Europe can't afford to be held hostage by the threat of a missile attack.

They evacuated in haste when this missile blew past them or perhaps in response to the impact itself.

Full-bore federal-subsidised research on missile defense.

The theory of missile defense is to send a bunch of projectiles in.

One instant, the missile was safely cupped in the wiry fists of a.

If testing a nuke doesn't get their attention, try firing an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Russia said it would suspend its obligations under a cold war-era arms control treaty over a missile shield plan.

We live in an area that profits from cruise missile sales from property taxes and income taxes.

It had also worked on fitting a bomb on a missile warhead.

Once a nuclear-tipped missile is launched, no one has the means to recall it.

Here, more than a century ago, was a prototype for the guided missile.

Peden, who often gives tours of his missile base, likes to start them in the garage.

We must be aware of rogue states developing nuclear and missile technology.

His bargaining position is strong: missile defence is unpopular with voters.

Vehicle tracks churned the sand amid a litter of spent missile launchers.

Begun deploying a missile defense system without evidence that it can work.

But they're not good for killing insurgents, because they're too small to carry a missile.

There have been disagreements over trade, global warming and missile defence.

Think of them as self-destruct buttons that you have to push with a missile.

The first of two tunnels out of the missile bay leads to a platform.

There are a lot of opportunities in green technology for laid-off missile designers.

Darpa wants the missile to launch either from stealth jets, bombers or drones.

Their story takes in nuclear winter, missile defence, acid rain and the ozone layer.

If not, expect some renewed fretting over their missile.

Iran's propagandists aren't only ones who can photoshop a missile launch.

Get ready for the new frontier of missile defense, where peacekeeping space lasers battle a storm of rogue nukes.

Mail is packed into a special nose cone and shot to its destination by a guided missile fired from a submarine.

It might be the world's tiniest missile defense system.

It took a failed nuclear inspection, two missile trucks crashing, and junior officers literally dozing off with launch codes.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

missile (ˈmɪsaɪl)

—n
1.	any object or weapon that is thrown at a target or shot from an engine, gun, etc
2.	a. a rocket-propelled weapon that flies either in a fixed trajectory (ballistic missile) or in a trajectory that can be controlled during flight (guided missile)
	b. (as modifier): a missile carrier

[C17: from Latin: missilis, from mittere to send]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

missile

1611 (adj.) "capable of being thrown," chiefly in phrase missile weapon, from Fr. missile, from L. missile "weapon that can be thrown," from missus, pp. of mittere "to send." The noun meaning "thing thrown or discharged as a weapon" is from 1656. Sense of "self-propelled rocket or bomb" is first recorded

EXPAND

1738; the modern remote guidance projectile so called from 1945.

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missile

mis·sile