rocket
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: 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”).
Inflected forms:
form: rockets
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: rockets
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: rocketing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: rocketed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: rocketed
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A projectile.
pos: noun
gloss: A projectile.
pos: noun
gloss: A projectile.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
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 38%. […] In a Gallup poll conducted near the start of 1955, just 9% said they’d like to go along on the first rocket ship to the moon if asked, and two years later, just 5% said they’d volunteer to be the first one up in a spacecraft.
gloss: A projectile.
pos: noun
gloss: Figurative uses.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: Fernandinho launched a rocket that flew just over. Gundogan's shot hit off Sviatchenko and Gordon and went out. City pressed and pressed.
gloss: Figurative uses.
pos: noun
tags: UK
figuratively
slang
examples: The Burmese nurse who'd gone with her was crying, for which she'd no doubt get a rocket from matron.
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.
gloss: Figurative uses.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
slang
gloss: Figurative uses.
pos: noun
tags: Scotland
figuratively
slang
examples: 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.
gloss: Figurative uses.
pos: noun
tags: East
England
South
figuratively
slang
gloss: To accelerate swiftly and powerfully.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To fly vertically.
pos: verb
gloss: To rise or soar rapidly.
pos: verb
examples: 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 rocketing, there was also a significant financial incentive.
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.
gloss: To experience sudden fame, popularity, or success.
pos: verb
examples: After spending years in obscurity, the band finally rocketed last week.
gloss: To carry something in a rocket.
pos: verb
gloss: To attack something with rockets.
pos: verb
Related words: ICBM
Derived words: 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
pocket rocket
polish one's rocket
red rocket
retrorocket
rice rocket
rockaire
rockair
rocket aircraft
rocket artillery
rocket belt
rocket booster
rocketborne
rocket car
rocket docket
rocketeer
rocket equation
rocketer
rocket festival
rocket garden
rocket jellyfish
rocket jump
rocket launcher
rocketless
rocketlike
rocketman
rocket motor
rocket-pack
rocket pack
rocket plane
rocket-plane
rocketplane
rocket pod
rocket propellant 1
rocket propelled grenade
rocket-propelled grenade
rocketpunk
rocketry
rocket science
rocket scientist
Rocketshipper
rocket ship
rocket-ship
rocketship
rocket sled
rocket-sled
rocketsled
rocket sonde
rocket-sonde
rocketsonde
rocket stage
rocket surgeon
rocket surgery
rocket up
rockoon
sea rocket
searocket
skyrocket
sky-rocket
sky rocket
snot rocket
solid rocket
sounding rocket
space rocket
step rocket
stomp rocket
thermal rocket
turborocket
wall-rocket
wall rocket
water rocket
yellow rocket
Translations: