Definition of "kamikaze" []

• A Japanese pilot trained in World War II to make a suicidal crash attack, especially upon a ship. (noun)
• An airplane loaded with explosives to be piloted in a suicide attack. (noun)
• Slang An extremely reckless person who seems to court death. (noun)
• Of or relating to a suicidal air attack: a kamikaze mission. (adjective)
• Slang So reckless in behavior or actions as to be suicidal: kamikaze hot rodders. (adjective)

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.

• "When Japan was in equally desperate straits in 1944, using the word kamikaze for the suicide pilots was not for nothing."
• "This is the origin of the term "kamikaze," divine wind."
• "The reason I ask is that kamikaze is Japanese for “Divine Wind”, and it would just be too funny if he chose to call himself William “kamikaze” Dembski."