collision - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle French collision, from Late Latin collīsiō, from Latin collīdere, past participle collīsus (“to dash together”); see collide. cf. allision.

collision (countable and uncountable, plural collisions)

  1. An instance of colliding.
    He has retired due to the collision.
    • 1994, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Hippopotamus:
      At the very moment he cried out, David realised that what he had run into was only the Christmas tree. Disgusted with himself at such cowardice, he spat a needle from his mouth, stepped back from the tree and listened. There were no sounds of any movement upstairs: no shouts, no sleepy grumbles, only a gentle tinkle from the decorations as the tree had recovered from the collision.
  2. (physics) Any event in which two or more bodies exert forces on each other in a relatively short time. In a collision, physical contact of two bodies is not necessary.
  3. (software compilation) Clipping of naming collision.
  4. (computing, chiefly video games) Clipping of collision detection; tangibility.

instance of colliding

From Latin collīsiōnem.

collision f (plural collisions)

  1. collision (an instance of colliding)