ack-ack

noun

Antiaircraft artillery.

“Ack-acks were set up in the square.”

Similar
AAAAAantiaircraftantiaircraft gunflakflackpom-pomack-ack gun
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Meanings

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

plural ack-acks

  1. countableslanguncountablegovernmentAntiaircraft artillery.

    Ack-acks were set up in the square.

    2 more examples

    The army fired upon us with ack-ack.

    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.

    2015, Kate Atkinson, A God in Ruins, →ISBN, page 140
  2. slanguncountablegovernmentAntiaircraft fire.

    The bomber flew through heavy ack-ack.

Synonyms & antonyms

anti-aircraft gun

Similar
AAAAA

nounartillery designed to shoot upward at airplanes

Similar
antiaircraftantiaircraft gunflakflackpom-pomack-ack gun
Broader
gun
Also see
anti-aircraftflackflakpom-pom

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

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

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

ack-ack. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ack-ack

MLA

“ack-ack.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ack-ack. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ack-ack,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ack-ack.

Source: ack-ack on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.