English▸ noun (in World War II) a Japanese aircraft loaded with explosives and making a deliberate suicidal crash on an enemy target.
▪ the pilot of an aircraft making a deliberate suicidal crash.
▸ adjective [attributive] relating to a kamikaze attack or pilot:
a kamikaze attack.
▪ reckless or potentially self-destructive:
he made a kamikaze run across three lanes of traffic.
– ORIGIN Japanese, from kami ‘divinity’ + kaze ‘wind’, originally referring to the gale that, in Japanese tradition, destroyed the fleet of invading Mongols in 1281.