| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| torpedo |
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| SYLLABICATION: | tor·pe·do |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  tôr-p  d |
| NOUN: | Inflected forms: pl. tor·pe·does
1. A cigar-shaped, self-propelled underwater projectile launched from a submarine, aircraft, or ship and designed to detonate on contact with or in the vicinity of a target. 2. Any of various submarine explosive devices, especially a submarine mine. 3. A small explosive placed on a railroad track that is fired by the weight of the train to sound a warning of an approaching hazard. 4. An explosive fired in an oil or gas well to begin or increase the flow. 5. A small firework consisting of gravel wrapped in tissue paper with a percussion cap that explodes when thrown against a hard surface. 6. See electric ray. 7. Slang A professional assassin or thug. 8. Chiefly New Jersey See submarine (sense 2). See Regional Note at submarine. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: tor·pe·doed, tor·pe·do·ing, tor·pe·does
1. To attack, strike, or sink with a torpedo. 2. To destroy decisively; wreck: torpedo efforts at reform. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Latin torpd, numbness; electric ray, crampfish, from torpre, to be stiff. See ster-1 in Appendix I.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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