kamikaze
To destroy in a suicide attack, especially by crashing an aircraftTo destroy (a ship, etc.) in a suicide attack, especially by crashing an aircraft.
» The only mystery in life is why the kamikaze pilots wore helmets.
AsliAbbasi · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
3 senses(transitive)To destroy (a ship, etc.) in a suicide attack, especially by crashing an aircraft.
(intransitive)To carry out a suicide attack, especially by crashing an aircraft.
(intransitive, slang)To fail disastrously.
Examples
3 sentencesThe only mystery in life is why the kamikaze pilots wore helmets.
Zionists are using Jewish settlers as political kamikazes.
Hiroshi died in a kamikaze mission in World War II.
Translations
2 languagesOrigin
Borrowed from Japanese 神風(かみかぜ) (kamikaze, “divine wind”), from 神(かみ) (kami, “divine”) + 風Borrowed from Japanese 神風(かみかぜ) (kamikaze, “divine wind”), from 神(かみ) (kami, “divine”) + 風(かぜ) (kaze, “wind”); which originally referred to the typhoon that destroyed the Mongol navy attacking Japan in 1281.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
kamikazes, kamikazeing, kamikazed, kamikazedLessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, regular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.