Other forms: ricocheted, ricocheting, ricochets
To ricochet is to bounce off a surface at an angle. Ricochet off the wall, a ricochet wound, bullets ricocheted.
The angle is what makes it dangerous and unpredictable: a ricochet keeps most of its speed and none of its aim, which is why shooting ranges are built with backstops rather than walls. It is pronounced RIK-uh-shay, with the t silent. Note that the French word is old and its origin is unknown.
1verbricochetTo bounce off a surface at an angle.
“The ball ricocheted off the post and into the net.”
ricochet is a bouncing off.
French ricochet is old and of unknown origin, first found in a phrase about an endless back-and-forth exchange.
French
ricochet
English, today
ricochet
French ricochet, of uncertain origin.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA