subs. (American).—Acts or words, the results of which recoil upon the person from whom they originate: properly an Australian missile weapon which, when thrown, can be made to return to the thrower; or which, likewise, can be caused to take an opposite direction to that in which it is first thrown.
1845. O. W. HOLMES, A Modest Request, Poems (1884), 42.
| Like the strange missle which the Australian throws, | |
| Your verbal BOOMERANG slaps you on the nose. |
1870. J. R. LOWELL, Among My Books, 1 S. (1873), 219. The BOOMERANG of argument, which one throws in the opposite direction of what he means to hit.
