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flechette

flechette

1 9.9
A small pointed metal dart fired from a weapon to pierce armor or other targets
  • noun
  • /fləˈʃɛt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : flecheta
  • I thought of my warren rooms at home, a thousand kilometers away, of how worried my folks might be, and of how they would take it if I died out in the thin air, or if some Statist thug pierced my young frame with a flechette...
  • fire a flechette

Examples

  • I just bought an Ithaca Tactical 12 GA, 20? (8rd mag) and am stocking up on Flechette ammo by the hundreds.

    Blog text (29)
  • "He doesn't seem to want to shoot." "Not with flechettes, sure enough," Sean said.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • It became an open rebellion until the third guard pulled a flechette from his pack.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • Flechette grenades.

  • There are many future gizmos and weapons like wingsuits and flechette guns with exploding rounds.

    Blog text (31)
  • The picket raised his rifle, a long-barreled, slender automatic flechette.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • They're firing .20 millimeter caseless flechette rounds at 300 meters.

  • And now my daddy has to ride out and maybe take a splash of flechettes in his belly, " instead of ticketing speeders along the state road. " " He ain't my Wild Bob, " I said.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • The soldiers used a rifle that shot flechette rounds for increased accuracy and penetration.

  • During the operation, the team was equipped with flechette darts designed to incapacitate targets quickly.

Synonyms

dart
vsflechette
140 1.1

A small pointed object you throw at a target

is designed as weapon ammunition rather than a game or toy missile
musket ball
vsflechette
  • Archaic
2 8.6

A small round piece of lead that a musket fires

is pointed and metal rather than a simple lead sphere
rifle ball
vsflechette
  • Archaic
7.9

A piece of metal fired from a rifle, originally round but later long

is pointed rather than spherical or elongated in shape
round shot
vsflechette
  • Archaic
9.9

A solid metal ball used in cannons in the past

is much smaller and pointed, used as weapon ammunition not large sphere

Surface Forms

flechette singular
flechettes plural

Etymology

The word flechette comes from the French flèche, meaning 'arrow', plus the little ending -ette, meaning 'small'. So a flechette is literally a 'small arrow', which helps explain why the word now means a tiny, pointed metal dart used as a projectile.