n. [ F. ] 1. A rebound or skipping, as of a bullet bouncing off a hard surface, or off the ground when a gun is fired at a low angle of elevation, or of a flat stone thrown along the surface of water. [ 1913 Webster ] 2. A peculiar gait used by certain animals such as the kangaroo who move by a type of bouncing motion. [ PJC ] Kangaroos and wallabies (macropodids) as well as kangaroo mice and jerboas, locate themselves differently, though, and do not use the forelimbs at all in their distinctive modus locatus, to which Muybridge applied the term “ricochet”, . . . Jaime A. Headden [ PJC ]
Ricochet firing (Mil.), the firing of guns or howitzers, usually with small charges, at an elevation of only a few degrees, so as to cause the balls or shells to bound or skip along the ground. [ 1913 Webster ]
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