pellet

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: pel=let

CIDE DICTIONARY

pellet, n. [F. pelote, LL. pelota, pilota, fr. L. pila a ball. Cf. Platoon.].

•  A little ball; as, a pellet of wax on paper.  [1913 Webster]
•  A bullet; a ball for firearms.  Bacon.  [1913 Webster]

  "As swift as a pellet out of a gun."  [1913 Webster]

Pellet gun a gun that fires small pellets, less than 3 mm diameter, usually made of metal. -- Pellet molding (Arch.), a narrow band ornamented with smalt, flat disks.

pellet, v. t. 

 To form into small balls; to pelletize.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

pellet, n. & v.
--n.
1 a small compressed ball of paper, bread, etc.
2 a pill.
3 a a small mass of bones, feathers, etc. regurgitated by a bird of prey. b a small hard piece of animal, usu. rodent, excreta.
4 a a piece of small shot. b an imitation bullet for a toy gun.
--v.tr. (pelleted, pelleting)
1 make into a pellet or pellets.
2 hit with (esp. paper) pellets.

Derivative

pelletize v.tr. (also -ise).

Etymology

ME f. OF pelote f. L pila ball

THESAURUS

pellet

ball, balloon, bar shot, bead, bird shot, bladder, blob, boll, bolus, brickbat, bubble, buckshot, bulb, bulbil, bulblet, bullet, cannon shot, cannonball, case shot, crossbar shot, duck shot, dumdum bullet, egg, ellipsoid, expanding bullet, geoid, globe, globelet, globoid, globule, glomerulus, gob, gobbet, grape, grapeshot, knob, knot, langrel shot, lapidate, manstopping bullet, marble, oblate spheroid, orb, orbit, orblet, pea, pearl, pebble, pelt, pill, prolate spheroid, rifle ball, rondure, round shot, shell, shot, shrapnel, slug, sphere, spheroid, spherule, split shot, stone

ROGET THESAURUS

pellet

Rotundity

N rotundity, roundness, cylindricity, sphericity, spheroidity, globosity, cylinder, cylindroid, cylindrical, barrel, drum, roll, roller, rouleau, column, rolling-pin, rundle, cone, conoid, pear shape, egg shape, bell shape, sphere, globe, ball, boulder, bowlder, spheroid, ellipsoid, oblong spheroid, oblate spheroid, prolate spheroid, drop, spherule, globule, vesicle, bulb, bullet, pellet, pelote, clew, pill, marble, pea, knob, pommel, horn, knot (convolution), curved surface, hypersphere, hyperdimensional surface, rotund, round, cylindric, cylindrical, cylindroid, columnar, lumbriciform, conic, conical, spherical, spheroidal, globular, globated, globous, globose, egg shaped, bell shaped, pear shaped, ovoid, oviform, gibbous, rixiform, campaniform, campanulate, campaniliform, fungiform, bead-like, moniliform, pyriform, bulbous, tres atque rotundus, round as an orange, round as an apple, round as a ball, round as a billiard ball, round as a cannon ball.