ack-ack

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English[edit]

ack-ack gun emplacement c. 1941

Etymology[edit]

From ack (“A”) + ack (“A”), RAF WWI signalese for AA (“anti-aircraft”). (In modern signalese it would be called alpha-alpha.)

Noun[edit]

ack-ack (countable and uncountable, plural ack-acks)

  1. Antiaircraft artillery.
    The army fired upon us with ack-ack.
    Ack-acks were set up in the square.
    • 2015, Kate Atkinson, A God in Ruins, →ISBN, page 140:
      He had thought how down there on the ground, on enemy soil, there were probably hundreds of Ivys, nice Fräuleins with buck teeth and fiancés on U-boats, manning the German ack-ack, all united in an effort to kill him.
  2. (uncountable) Antiaircraft fire.
    The bomber flew through heavy ack-ack.

Synonyms[edit]

  • (anti-aircraft gun): AAA, AA

References[edit]

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