cruise missile

noun

: a guided missile that has a terrain-following radar system and that flies at moderate speed and low altitude

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web A year later, the Ukrainian capital stands and a semblance of normalcy has returned to the city as the fighting has concentrated in the country’s east, punctuated by cruise missile and drone attacks against military and civilian infrastructure. —

Dallas News, 20 Feb. 2023 Unable to advance on the battlefield, Russia has subjected Ukrainian cities to devastating cruise missile and drone attacks in recent weeks, targeting the country’s energy network. —

Yaroslav Trofimov, WSJ, 7 Nov. 2022 Last Friday, a Russian cruise missile crossed over Moldovan territory, the country’s defense ministry said and Ukraine’s military confirmed. —

Cristian Gherasim, CNN, 15 Feb. 2023 Flooded areas in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih began to see some reprieve Thursday after officials moved quick to divert water after a Russian cruise missile struck and broke a dam. —

Caitlin Mcfall, Fox News, 15 Sep. 2022 Russian forces had fired a cruise missile into a major dam in her city, sending millions of gallons of water gushing downstream. —

Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times, 15 Sep. 2022 In 1989, under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, U.S. and Soviet scientists took part in a joint test abroad the Slava in the Black Sea to measure the emission of neutrons and gamma rays from a nuclear warhead on a cruise missile. —

Bloomberg.com, 14 Apr. 2022 Iranian authorities admitted that its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force shot the plane down by mistake after it was misidentified as a cruise missile by an air defense operator. —

Artemis Moshtaghian, CNN, 8 Jan. 2023 North Korea has carried out more than 40 missile launches this year and this week, Kim supervised a cruise missile test and pledged to strengthen the regime’s nuclear arms program to ward off enemies. —

Min Joo Kim, Washington Post, 14 Oct. 2022 See More

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

Word History

First Known Use

1959, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of cruise missile was in 1959

See more words from the same year

Cite this Entry

Style

“Cruise missile.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cruise%20missile. Accessed 25 Mar. 2023.

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