ka|mi|ka|ze

ka|mi|ka|ze «_KAH mee KAH zee», noun, adjective.

–n.

1. a Japanese suicide pilot in World War II, trained to dive an airplane loaded with explosives into a selected target, usually a naval vessel.

2. the plane itself: »

Kamikazes plunged out of the sky, their suicidal pilots aiming…at the destroyers (Time).

3. a person or thing that acts like a kamikaze: »

to run for election as a political kamikaze.

–adj.

1. of or being a kamikaze: »

a kamikaze pilot.

2. Informal. extremely reckless: »

a kamikaze cabdriver, kamikaze radicals.

╂[< Japanese kamikaze (originally) “divine wind,” a name given to a typhoon which saved Japan from a Mongol invasion in the 1200's < kami god + kaze wind]