ball

en-noun

ball (countable and uncountable, plural balls)

→ Cantonese: 波 (bo¹)

→ Japanese: ボール (bōru)

→ Makah: ba·la

→ Yoruba: bọ́ọ̀lù

From Middle English bal, ball, balle, from an unattested Old English *beall, *bealla (“round object, ball”) or Old Norse bǫllr (“a ball”), both from Proto-Germanic *balluz, *ballô (“ball”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰol-n- (“ball, bubble”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to blow, inflate, swell”). Cognate with Old Saxon ball, Dutch bal, Old High German bal, ballo (German Ball (“ball”); Ballen (“bale”)). Related forms in Romance are borrowings from Germanic. See also balloon, bale.

ампыл

object, generally spherical, used for playing games

туп

ballistics: a solid nonexplosive missile

cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey

(ballistics, firearms) A solid, spherical nonexplosive missile for a cannon, rifle, gun, etc.

A jacketed non-expanding bullet, typically of military origin.

[…] the Good Old Cause, which, as they seemed to represent it, smelt of Gunpowder and ball […]

1659, Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey, England’s Confusion, London, page 7:

I gave each of them a Musket with a Firelock on it, and about eight Charges of Powder and Ball, charging them to be very good Husbands of both, and not to use either of them but upon urgent Occasion.

1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 294:

[…] some headstrong Maroons were using a soldier of Captain Craskell’s ill, and compelling him to write to his commander, that it was too late to do any thing good, and that they wanted nothing, having got plenty of powder and ball […]

1803, Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, Letter 5, p. 148:

This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 1, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 1:

(uncountable, obsolete) Such bullets collectively.


mushroom

en-verb

mushroom (third-person singular simple present mushrooms, present participle mushrooming, simple past and past participle mushroomed)

mushrooms (present singular third-person)
mushrooming (participle present)
mushroomed (participle past)
mushroomed (past)

From Middle English muscheron, musseron, from Anglo-Norman musherum, moscheron, from Old French moisseron, of obscure origin: probably derived from Old French mosse, moise ("moss"; whence also French mousse), as the use first applied to a type of fungus which grows in moss, from Frankish *mosu (“moss”) or Old Dutch *mosa (“moss”), akin to Old High German mosa (“moor, swamp”), Old High German mos (“moss, bog”), Old High German mios (“moss, mire”), Old English mēos (“moss”), Old English mōs (“bog, marsh”), Old Norse mosi (“moss”), Old Norse myrr (“bog, mire”), from Proto-Germanic *musą, *musô, *miuziz (“mosses, bog”), from Proto-Indo-European *mews- (“mosses, mold, mildew”). Displaced native Old English swamm. More at mire. Alternatively, the Old French may be of pre-Roman origin. See Ancient Greek μύκης (múkēs, “mushroom”). Doublet of moss and mousse.

unk

obscure

gl

"moss"; whence also French <i class="Latn mention" lang="fr">mousse</i>

der

(intransitive) To form the shape of a mushroom.

(ballistics, of a bullet) To form the shape of a mushroom when striking a soft target.


land

en-noun

land (countable and uncountable, plural lands)

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ-
Proto-Indo-European *-om
Proto-Germanic *landą
Proto-West Germanic *land
Old English land
Middle English lond
English land
From Middle English lond, land, from Old English land, from Proto-West Germanic *land, from Proto-Germanic *landą (“land”), from Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- (“land, heath”).
Cognate with Scots laund (“land”), West Frisian lân (“land”), Dutch land (“land, country”), German Land (“land, country, state”), Norwegian and Swedish land (“land, country, shore, territory”), Icelandic land (“land”). Non-Germanic cognates include Old Irish lann (“heath”), Welsh llan (“enclosure”), Breton lann (“heath”), Old Church Slavonic лѧдо (lędo), from Proto-Slavic *lędo (“heath, wasteland”), French lande (“heath”) and Albanian lëndinë (“heath, grassland”).

cog

The FBI maintains a database, the General Rifling Characteristics (GRC) file, which is organized by caliber, number of lands and grooves, direction of twist, and width of lands and grooves, to help an examiner figure out the origin of a recovered bullet.

2008 August 1, Lisa Steele, “Ballistics”, in Eric York Drogin, editor, Science for Lawyers, American Bar Association, page 16:

The human eye is a precision instrument. It can detect grooves and lands on a slug more efficiently than any computer.

2012 November 15, “One Way to Get Off”, in Elementary, season 1, episode 7, spoken by Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller):

In any surface prepared with indentations, perforations, or grooves, that part of the surface which is not so treated, such as the level part of a millstone between the furrows.

(ballistics) The space between the rifling grooves in a gun.


ogive

From late Middle English ogif, egeve, egeove, from Old French ogive, œgive, augive. Doublet of ogee.

However, Ordnance tests revealed that the existing metal ogive (nose cone) tended to telescope on impact, cushioning the impact shock, and resulting in the failure of the impact fuze. In addition, the ogive tended to shear off from the rest of the body at impact angles of 20 degrees or more, […]

2016, Steven J. Zaloga, Bazooka vs Panzer: Battle of the Bulge 1944, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 32:

Nose: The forward end of a warhead. May have a fuze-well, be solid, or be defined by the shape of the ogive.
Ogive: Is aft of the nose, and forward of the bourrelet. May house a fuze adapter with a shape consistent with the contour of the ogive.

2019, Thomas Gersbeck, Practical Military Ordnance Identification, 2nd edition, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 111:

(weaponry, ballistics) The pointed, curved nose of a bullet, missile, or rocket.


point-blank

From French point blanc (“white point”), originally referring to the white spot to be aimed at on a target (see blank's "bull's eye") or alternatively into empty space being fired horizontally.

Now, here's a useful tool—.470, telescopic sight, double ejector, point-blank up to three-fifty. That's the rifle I used against the Peruvian slave-drivers three years ago.

1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, “‘I was the Flail of the Lord’”, in The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

Heavily armed militants launched a series of coordinated attacks in rural Assam on Tuesday, pulling villagers from their homes and shooting them at point-blank range, witnesses said.

2014 December 24, “Assam rebels kill scores on night of brutal attacks in Indian state”, in The Guardian:

Fifteen of those people had died of natural causes, the rest from gunshot wounds, including point-blank shots, or from shrapnel.

2022 April 3, Carlotta Gall, Andrew E. Kramer, “In a Kyiv Suburb,‘They Shot Everyone They Saw’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(ballistics) The distance between a firearm and a target where a projectile in flight is expected to strike the centre of the target without adjusting the elevation of the firearm.


POI

/ˌpiː ˌəʊ ˈaɪ/

(ballistics) Initialism of point of impact.


semi-infinite

(ballistics, of a target) Sufficiently thick that the level of penetration of a projectile is not affected by its thickness.


windage

en-noun

windage (usually uncountable, plural windages)

(ballistics) The difference in diameter between the bore of a firearm and the shot.

(ballistics) Horizontal adjustment of the sight of a firearm or bow.


crusher gauge

crusher gauges (plural)
crusher gage (alternative)

(ballistics) An instrument for measuring the explosive force of gunpowder, etc., by its effect in compressing a piece of metal.


BDC

(ballistics) Initialism of bullet drop compensation.


CEP

The Circular Error Probable (CEPs) of SLBMs and SLCMs ought thus to be deliberately kept above the 'Hard Target Kill' (HTK) level.

1989, Marlies ter Borg-Neervoort, Wim Smit, Non-provocative Defence as a Principle of Arms Reduction:

circular error probable
w:circular error probable

(ballistics) An initialism of three synonymous phrases, namely:

circular error probability
w:circular error probable

Initialism of circular error probability.

circle of equal probability
w:circular error probable

Initialism of circle of equal probability.


ghost bullet

Let us assume that this 'ghost bullet' idea is correct. Let us write an equation which relates the distance the ordinary bullet travels with the direction of the recoil of the gun and the amount of recoil, assuming that a ghost bullet does travel off at some strange angle each time.

1964, Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, page 412:

And the ghost bullet allowed me to introduce new depths of police corruption.

2012, Douglas Corleone, Last Lawyer Standing, page 304:

In a later account of his attack in Jamaica, Brathwaite claims his assailants shot him with a "ghost bullet,” going so far as to narrate his own death in “I Cristobel Colon.”

2014, Anthony Reed, Freedom Time, page 224:

He didn't find anything on the bullet. Not a trace. A ghost bullet.

2018, Sarah J. Maas, Catwoman: Soulstealer, page 76:

(weaponry, ballistics) A bullet that cannot be found or that is untraceable through ballistic testing.