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rocket

roc·ket

UK/ˈɹɒk.ɪt/ US/ˈɹɑk.ɪt/ common slang uk
noun (5) verb (2)

noun

1.

any vehicle propelled by a rocket engine

2.

a jet engine containing its own propellant and driven by reaction propulsion

Synonyms
3.
4.

propels bright light high in the sky, or used to propel a lifesaving line or harpoon

Synonyms
5.

sends a firework display high into the sky

Synonyms

verb

1.

shoot up abruptly, like a rocket

  • “prices skyrocketed”
Synonyms
2.

propel with a rocket

Origin

From Italian rocchetta, from Old Italian rocchetto (“rocket”, literally “a bobbin”), diminutive of rocca (“a distaff”), from Lombardic rocko (“spinning wheel”), from Proto-West Germanic *rokkō, from Proto-Germanic *rukkô (“a distaff, a staff with flax fibres tied loosely to it, used in spinning thread”). Cognate with Old High German rocco, rocko, roccho, rocho ("a distaff"; > German Rocken (“a distaff”)), Swedish rock (“a distaff”), Icelandic rokkur (“a distaff”), Middle English rocke (“a distaff”). More at rock⁴. For the meaning development, compare fuselage, ultimately from Latin fūsus (“spindle, spinning wheel”).

Phrases

  • antimatter rocket
  • bastard rocket
  • blue rocket
  • booster rocket
  • bottle rocket
  • chemical rocket
  • Congreve rocket
  • corn rocket
  • crotch rocket
  • dame's rocket
  • dyer's rocket
  • fission rocket

Related words

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Parts

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.