rocket

A projectile.

Noun

  1. A projectile.

    1. A cylindrical projectile that can be fired to a great height through combustion, (specifically) a type of firework of this form, typically exploding with light and colour; a skyrocket.

    2. A blunt lance head used in jousting.

    3. A long vehicle or craft propelled by a rocket engine; a missile or rocket-propelled spacecraft.

      • As Elon Musk returns his focus to his businesses, one of his most important companies just had another setback: A SpaceX Starship rocket exploded in an immense fireball Wednesday during a routine ground test. - 2025...
      • Asked by Gallup in 1949 whether “men in rockets will be able to reach the moon” within the next 50 years, just 15% said yes. About five years later, confidence in the men in rockets’ prospects had more than doubled to...

    4. An engine operating similarly to the pyrotechnic, generating thrust by the expulsion of hot gases; a rocket engine.

  2. Figurative uses.
    • Fernandinho launched a rocket that flew just over. Gundogan's shot hit off Sviatchenko and Gordon and went out. City pressed and pressed. - 2016 September 28, Tom English, “Celtic 3–3 Manchester City”, in BBC Sport, BBC...

    1. Something that travels high in the air or with great speed; especially (sport), a hard shot.

    2. (UK slang, originally military) A severe reprimand; a telling-off.

      • The Burmese nurse who'd gone with her was crying, for which she'd no doubt get a rocket from matron. - 1973, Elizabeth Mavor, A Green Equinox, Virago, published 2023, page 93:
      • While Solborg and Lemaigre were dreaming of revolts, Donovan had learned of Solborg’s insubordination and meddling. He sent him a “rocket” ordering him out of North Africa and back to Lisbon at once. - 1980, David...

    3. (slang) An ace (the playing card).

    4. (Scotland, slang) A stupid or crazy person.

      • Why were the Luddites named efter Ned Ludd? A wee rocket. A wee fucken fairy bampot. A pure hooligan, smashing stuff up. A ned. Ned Ludd. - 2014, Alistair Beaton, Rob Drummond, Morna Pearson, Contemporary Scottish Plays:

    5. (South East England, slang) A very physically attractive woman.

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”).

Forms

rockets

Related

ICBM

Derived

antimatter rocket antirocket booster rocket bottle rocket chemical rocket Congreve rocket corn rocket crotch rocket fission rocket fusion rocket ghost rocket hash rocket hybrid rocket life rocket liquid rocket moon rocket multiple rocket launcher nuclear-electric rocket nuclear-pulse rocket nuclear rocket nuclear-thermal rocket nuclear-thermoelectric rocket off one's rocket pion rocket

Noun Entry 2

  1. A leaf vegetable of species Eruca sativa or Eruca vesicaria.

    Synonyms: arugula rocket salad eruca

  2. Any plant of the genus Eruca.
    • And avoid certain aphrodisiac foods, such as onions and rockets. - 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 16:
  3. Rocket larkspur (Consolida regalis, syn. Delphinium consolida).

Origin

Borrowed from French roquette, from Italian ruchetta, diminutive of ruca, from Latin eruca. Cognate to arugula, rucola, eruca, roquette.

Forms

rockets

Derived

blue rocket dame's rocket sweet rocket dyer's rocket bastard rocket London rocket wild rocket perennial wall rocket sand rocket white rocket yellowrocket rocketcress winter rocket wound rocket

Verb

  1. To accelerate swiftly and powerfully.
    • With Free Guy, Reynolds gets just a little more in touch with his Carrey side via nothing less than his own version of The Truman Show, shorn of its daydream dread and rocketed into the age of Fortnite. - 2021 August 6,...
  2. To fly vertically.
  3. To rise or soar rapidly.
    • The project was attractive because of the ability to maximise the use of existing and decommissioned railways, minimise land take, and decrease the amount of disruption during the project. With London land prices...
    • The cost of food in the UK had rocketed by 25% since 2019, the researchers calculated, but if the post-Brexit trade restrictions were not in place then this increase would be only 17% – nearly a third lower. - 2023 May...
  4. To experience sudden fame, popularity, or success.
    • After spending years in obscurity, the band finally rocketed last week.
  5. To carry something in a rocket.
  6. To attack something with rockets.

Forms

rockets rocketing rocketed