rocket

noun
/ˈɹɒk.ɪt/UK/ˈɹɑk.ɪt/US/ˈɹɑ.kət/

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”).

  1. derived from *rukkô — “a distaff, a staff with flax fibres tied loosely to it, used in spinning thread
  2. derived from *rokkō
  3. derived from rocko — “spinning wheel
  4. derived from rocchetta

Definitions

  1. A projectile.

  2. Figurative uses.

    • Fernandinho launched a rocket that flew just over. Gundogan's shot hit off Sviatchenko and Gordon and went out. City pressed and pressed.
  3. To accelerate swiftly and powerfully.

    • 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.
  4. + 8 more definitions
    1. To fly vertically.

    2. To rise or soar rapidly.

      • 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.
    3. To experience sudden fame, popularity, or success.

      • After spending years in obscurity, the band finally rocketed last week.
    4. To carry something in a rocket.

    5. To attack something with rockets.

    6. A leaf vegetable of species Eruca sativa or Eruca vesicaria.

    7. Any plant of the genus Eruca.

      • And avoid certain aphrodisiac foods, such as onions and rockets.
    8. Rocket larkspur (Consolida regalis, syn. Delphinium consolida).

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at rocket. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01rocket02figurative03simile04resemblance05representation06demographic07age08stage

A definitional loop anchored at rocket. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at rocket

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA