Definition

Noun: 1. A low-flying ball in sports: In baseball or tennis, a batted or served ball that travels very close to the ground, making it difficult to field or return. 2. A type of bomb: A bomb designed to detonate at or just above ground level, intended to maximize its destructive area against personnel and unarmored vehicles. It typically has a large proportion of its weight as casing material that fragments upon explosion.

Usage Examples

• Noun (Sports):
  • The hitter sent a perfect daisy cutter between the shortstop and third baseman for a single.
  • Her serve was a tricky daisy cutter that stayed low after the bounce.
• Noun (Military):
  • The aircraft deployed daisy cutters to clear the landing zone of enemy troops.
  • This type of daisy cutter is designed to produce a wide blast radius.

Advanced Usage

• The term is often used descriptively rather than as an official military designation. In modern contexts, it is strongly associated with large fuel-air explosives (FAEs) or other bombs intended for area denial and anti-personnel use.

Variants and Related Words

• Line drive (noun): A baseball term for a batted ball hit sharply and directly, often low to the ground, which can be synonymous with a in a sports context.
• Ground-hugging (adjective): Describing something, like a ball or missile, that travels very close to the ground.

Synonyms

• (Sports): Worm-burner (slang), low liner, line drive.
• (Military): Anti-personnel bomb, area denial weapon, FAE (Fuel-Air Explosive) in some specific contexts.

Related Idioms

• To cut the daisies: An informal, metaphorical phrase derived from the bomb's name, meaning to destroy or clear everything at ground level. (e.g., )

Noun

1. a batted or served ball that skims along close to the ground
2. a bomb with only 10 to 20 per cent explosive and the remainder consisting of casings designed to break into many small high-velocity fragments; most effective against troops and vehicles