Dictionary.com

Popular Searches

 Thesaurus.com

hunter-killer satellite

American  

noun

  1. a satellite designed to seek out and destroy a nearby enemy satellite by exploding itself into a cloud of high-speed metal fragments.

Etymology

Origin of hunter-killer satellite

First recorded in 1975–80

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Intelligence officials have dismissed speculation by some scientists that Cosmos 954's big, cylindrical nuclear power pack, a yard long and a yard thick, with its 110 lbs. of highly enriched uranium 235, was so powerful that it might actually have been part of a nuclear weapon or a hunter-killer satellite.

From Time Magazine Archive

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.