English Explanatory Dictionary

torpedo

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. An electric ray of the genus Torpedo.
  2. A cylindrical explosive projectile that can travel quickly underwater and is used as a weapon.
  3. A similar projectile that can travel through space.
  4. A naval mine.
  5. An explosive device buried underground, to destroy fortifications, troops, or cavalry.
  6. Synonym of submarine sandwich.
  7. A professional gunman or assassin.
  8. A small explosive device attached to the top of the rail to provide an audible warning when a train passes over it.
  9. A kind of firework in the form of a small ball, or pellet, which explodes when thrown upon a hard object.
  10. An automobile with a streamlined profile and a folding or detachable soft top, and having the hood or bonnet line raised to be level with the car's waistline, resulting in a straight beltline from front to back.
  11. A focal ovoid swelling on the axons of Purkinje cells, observed in several diseases such as essential tremor and spinocerebellar ataxia.
  12. A woman's shoe with a pointed toe.
verb
  1. To strike (a ship) with one or more torpedoes.
  2. To sink (a ship) with one or more torpedoes.
  3. To undermine or destroy any endeavor with a powerful attack.

Pronunciation

/ˌtɔː(ɹ)ˈpiː.dəʊ/ /ˌtoɹˈpi.doʊ/ en-au-torpedo.ogg

Word forms

torpedo torpedoes torpedos torpedoing torpedoed

Etymology

* Borrowed from Latin torpēdō (“a torpedo fish; numbness, torpidity, electric ray”), from torpeō (“to be stiff, numb, torpid; to be astounded; to be inactive”) + -ēdō (noun suffix), from Proto-Indo-European *ster- (“stiff”). In the military sense coined by Robert Fulton in 1805. Cognate with Old English steorfan (“to die”), Ancient Greek στερεός (stereós, “solid”), Lithuanian tirpstu (“to become rigid”), Old Church Slavonic трупети (trupeti). * (type of car): From 1908, after "the Torpedo", a car designed by Captain Theo Masui.

Synonyms

torp fish land torpedo land mine submarine sandwich detonator bifta bifter blunt bogie bomber bone bun Camberwell carrot doink doinker doob doober doobie exotic cheroot fatty giggle stick hogger hooter J jazz cigarette jay jimmy joint juju left-handed cigarette muggle number phattie reefer roach spiff spliff toke tube torpedo zol zoot

Related words

torpid torpedinous

Derived words

Bangalore torpedo land torpedo neato torpedo spar torpedo torp torpedo boat torpedo body torpedo bomber torpedo boom torpedo catcher torpedo cruiser torpedo juice torpedoman torpedo net torpedo punt torpedo ram torpedo roll torpedo stern torpedo tube Torpex common torpedo

Translations

Albanian: torpilë Albanian: silur Arabic: طُرْبِيد Armenian: տորպեդ Azerbaijani: torpeda Belarusian: тарпе́да Belarusian: тарпэ́да Bengali: টর্পেডো Bulgarian: торпе́до Catalan: torpede Chinese Mandarin: 魚雷 /鱼雷 Czech: torpédo Danish: torpedo Dutch: torpedo Esperanto: torpedo Estonian: torpeedo Finnish: torpedo French: torpille Galician: torpedo Georgian: ტორპედო German: Torpedo Greek: τορπίλη Gujarati: નૌકાનાશક Hindi: टॉरपीडो Hindi: टारपीडो Hungarian: torpedó Icelandic: tundurskeyti Indonesian: torpedo Italian: siluro Italian: torpedine Japanese: 魚雷 Kazakh: торпеда Korean: 어뢰 Kyrgyz: торпеда Latvian: torpēda Lithuanian: torpeda Macedonian: торпе́до Malay: torpedo Māori: tōpīto Marathi: टॉरपीडो Central Melanau: topedo Norwegian Bokmål: torpedo Iranian Persian: اَژْدَر Iranian Persian: تُرْپی Polish: torpeda
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on T Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary