Word.ws English Dictionary

bourrelet

bourrelet noun: an accurately machined portion around the diameter of a shell of a gun, which acts to increase accuracy of projectile fit to the barrel.

bourrelet: an accurately machined portion around the diameter of a shell of a gun, which acts to increase...
Image: Kraligor, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

bourrelet (plural bourrelets)

  1. An accurately machined portion around the diameter of a shell of a gun, which acts to increase accuracy of projectile fit to the barrel.
    • The bourrelet is a slightly raised surface on the rocket designed to maintain a light contact with the inside of the launching tube to center the rocket when fired.2019, Thomas Gersbeck, Practical Military Ordnance Identification, 2nd edition, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 111
  2. An escoffion.
  3. A raised rim around a footprint consisting of sediment displaced by the pressure of the step.

Forms of bourrelet

pluralbourrelets

Origin of bourrelet

Borrowed from French bourrelet.

Questions about bourrelet

What does bourrelet mean?
Bourrelet means an accurately machined portion around the diameter of a shell of a gun, which acts to increase accuracy of projectile fit to the barrel.
What part of speech is bourrelet?
Bourrelet is a noun.
What is the plural of bourrelet?
The plural of bourrelet is bourrelets.

Words near bourrelet in the dictionary

  1. Bourque
  2. Bourquin
  3. Bourquins
  4. bourree
  5. bourrees
  6. bourrelet
  7. bourrelets
  8. bourride
  9. bourrides
  10. bourré
  11. bourrée

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bourrelet (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “bourrelet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bourrelet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.