torpedo
pronunciation
How to pronounce torpedo in British English:
UK [tɔ:ˈpi:dəʊ]
How to pronounce torpedo in American English:
US [tɔrˈpidoʊ]
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- Noun:
- a professional killer who uses a gun
- a large sandwich made of a long crusty roll split lengthwise and filled with meats and cheese (and tomato and onion and lettuce and condiments); different names are used in different sections of the United States
- an explosive device that is set off in an oil well (or a gas well) to start or to increase the flow of oil (or gas)
- a small firework that consists of a percussion cap and some gravel wrapped in paper; explodes when thrown forcefully against a hard surface
- a small explosive device that is placed on a railroad track and fires when a train runs over it; the sound of the explosion warns the engineer of danger ahead
- armament consisting of a long cylindrical self-propelled underwater projectile that detonates on contact with a target
- any sluggish bottom-dwelling ray of the order Torpediniformes having a rounded body and electric organs on each side of the head capable of emitting strong electric discharges
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- Verb:
- attack or hit with torpedoes
Word Origin
- torpedo (n.)
- 1520s, "electric ray" (flat fish that produces an electric charge to stun prey or for defense), from Latin torpedo "electric ray," originally "numbness, sluggishness" (the fish so called from the effect of being jolted by the ray's electric discharges), from torpere "be numb" (see torpor). Torpedo. A fish which while alive, if touched even with a long stick, benumbs the hand that so touches it, but when dead is eaten safely. [Johnson] The sense of "explosive device used to blow up enemy ships" is first recorded 1776, as a floating mine; the self-propelled version is from c. 1900. Related: Torpedic.
- torpedo (v.)
- "destroy or sink (a ship) by a torpedo," 1874, from torpedo (n.). Also used late 19c. of blowing open oil wells. Figurative sense attested from 1895. Related: Torpedoed; torpedoing.
Example
- 1. Within one minute , the chinese fleets were sunk by torpedo .
- 2. This aerial view shows nakajima b5n torpedo bombers that had launched from the japanese aircraft carrierkaga .
- 3. Was the scandal intended by hardliners in washington to torpedo the improving relationship with moscow ?
- 4. Earlier in the same year it was accused of sinking a south korean naval vessel with a torpedo , killing 46 sailors .
- 5. Seoul has accused mr kim of ordering a submarine to torpedo a south korean warship on march 26 , killing 46 sailors .