ballistic

adjective

bal·lis·tic | \bə-ˈli-stik

Definition of ballistic

1 : 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 : of or relating to the science of the motion of projectiles in flight

3 exercise : being or characterized by repeated bouncing ballistic stretching

4 physics, of an object in motion : behaving like a projectile But the Bell Labs switch uses such a low current that the few ballistic electrons are a distance of a micrometer or more apart …— Robert Pool

5 of a material : capable of resisting or stopping bullets or other projectiles ballistic glass ballistic nylon … engineered specifically to be worn under ballistic vests and shirts.— K. M. Reese

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Examples of ballistic in a Sentence

she went ballistic when she discovered her sister using her nail polish

Recent Examples on the Web

Luggage doesn't have to be a sea of black ballistic nylon. — Lale Arikoglu, Condé Nast Traveler, "Innovators: How Indré Rockefeller, Co-Founder of Paravel, Made Luggage Romantic Again," 19 Sep. 2018 Last week, Onofri said investigators were collecting ballistic evidence that may help determine which bullets struck the bystanders. — Robert Moran, Philly.com, "'Shots fired! Shots fired! … Everybody out!' Terror and chaos at Trenton arts festival," 27 June 2018 Barr compared Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett to an ape and the media went ballistic. — latimes.com, "Calendar Letters: Samantha Bee, Roseanne Barr and competing views of hypocrisy," 9 June 2018 The Cessnas also sport ballistic panels to protect the crew and equipment from small-arms fire, a missile-warning system, and missile countermeasures. — Sean Gallagher, Ars Technica, "US buys Afghanistan “Eliminator” attack planes—Cessnas with Hellfires," 14 Mar. 2018 The arm, made of carbon fiber, can be used from the prone position and can attach to either side of a soldier's ballistic vest. — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "Army Developing a Sci-Fi Robo Arm to Help Soldiers Carry Heavy Weapons," 28 Mar. 2017 The third was a new non-ballistic, hypersonic ICBM capable of evading US missile interceptors. — Sean Gallagher, Ars Technica, "Putin boasts new strategic weapons will make US missile defense “useless”," 1 Mar. 2018 The restaurant has even come up with its own food challenge to consume what is surely the city's most ballistic, fiery crawfish. — Greg Morago, Houston Chronicle, "Don't fear the Carolina Reaper seasoning at Casian Crawfish," 7 Feb. 2018 This track would play and the crowd would go ballistic, and the DJs would be cutting up the break. — Kat Bein, Billboard, "Louie Vega Breaks Down 'NYC Disco' Double Album: Exclusive," 29 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ballistic.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.