The Collaborative International Dictionary
Missile \Mis"sile\, n. [L. missile.]
A weapon thrown or projected or intended to be projected, as a lance, an arrow, or a bullet.
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A rocket-propelled device designed to fly through the air and deliver a warhead of explosive materials to a target.
Note: Numerous types of rocket-propelled missile[2] are now used in modern warfare. Some types with names indicating their range or function are: antiaircraft missile; ballistic missile; cruise missile; antiballistic missile missile; air-to-air missile; air-to-ground missile; guided missile; intercontinental ballistic missile (IBM); intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM); surface-to-air missile.
WordNet
n. a missile designed to be launched from an airplane at a target on the ground [syn: air-to-surface missile]
Usage examples of "air-to-ground missile".
The Skipper II laser-guided air-to-ground missile was fourteen feet long and weighed over twelve hundred pounds, and as the AGM kicked free, the Intruder bucked skyward.
The Eagle evaded fire and got off a Maverick air-to-ground missile, which streaked down to obliterate the gun-track, and then the pilot went after the next battery of howitzers.
They have targets all over the place for air-to-ground missile practice, both night and day.
It had eight new French fighter-bombers and each of these planes, moreover, was equipped with an American air-to-ground missile with a Japanese brain which could home in on radar signals, or on heat from an engine, depending on instructions from the pilot.
Marchenko himself opened the steel claws that normally held an air-to-ground missile while the mechanic fitted the bomb to the pod.