Rocketed

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To have ascended rapidly and forcefully, indicating a quick upward movement or travel
2. to have surged dramatically, showing a notable and swift rise in amount or level
3. Moved upward with great speed and energy, showing a rapid ascent ; experienced a sharp and sudden rise in quantity or value

Etymology: The past tense of "rocket" carries a word that once meant a spindle. The noun started life as a distaff, the staff that held flax fibres for spinning thread. Italian spinners called this implement a "rocchetta," a little bobbin, and when the word reached English through French, its sense drifted from spinning tools to fireworks and then to the missile that now shoots upward at speed. The link between a spinning tool and a launching projectile runs through a shared shape. The French word "fuselage," for an aircraft's body, comes from Latin "fusus," meaning spindle, and the same image of a long tapering form connects the two developments. A rocket's slender body looks like a spindle, which is why the spinner's word could eventually describe something that flew. The verb form simply means that something was launched upward with great speed, so its meaning moved from the spinning room to the sky.

Synonyms: soared, shot, spiked

Antonyms: plummeted, dropped