Definition of "ballistic missile" [bal•lis•tic mis•sile]

• A projectile that assumes a free-falling trajectory after an internally guided, self-powered ascent. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The following week, after reviewing a variety of options about where and how it should be based, I decided to order deployment of the still-under-development MX Peacekeeper long-range intercontinental ballistic missile ICBM in underground silos at Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming."
• "Despite its undulating, bloblike appearance, the balloon shot into the clouds like a ballistic missile as soon as the ropes were released."
• "The United States was sanctioning one after another of China’s military-industrial complex companies, such as NORINCO, for providing ballistic missile equipment and technology to Iran, in violation of our statutes."