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ballistic

bə-ˈli-stik 3 syllables uncommon

  1. adjective.extremely and usually suddenly excited, upset, or angry: wild

    • He went ballistic when he saw the dent in his car.
    • and the crowd goes ballistic
  2. adjective.of or relating to the science of the motion of projectiles in flight

    • ballistic stretching
    • But the Bell Labs switch uses such a low current that the few ballistic electrons are a distance of a micrometer or more apart …
  3. adjective.being or characterized by repeated bouncing

    • ballistic glass
    • ballistic nylon

Origin

borrowed from New Latin ballisticus "relating to the motion of projectiles in flight," from Latin ballista + New Latin -icus.

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