torpedo
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌtɔː(ɹ)ˈpiː.dəʊ/
ipa: /ˌtoɹˈpi.doʊ/
rhymes: -iːdəʊ
Forms: form: torpedoes
form: torpedos
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.
Senses: examples: text: Faire Queene, forbeare to angle for the fiſh, / Which being caught, ſtrikes him that takes it dead, / I meane that vile Torpedo, Gaueſton, / That now I hope flotes on the Iriſh Seas
ref: 1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act I]:
text: The man has been changed into an artificial monster by the station in which he is born, and the consequent homage that benumbed his faculties like the torpedo's touch […].
ref: 1790, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men:
text: "A childhood Misadventure with a Torpedo," Dixon, with a brief move of his head toward Mason, confides, "— thus his Sensitivity at all References to the,"— whispering,— "electrickal!"
ref: 1997, Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon, New York: Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 286:
topics: biology
natural-sciences
zoology
glosses: An electric ray of the genus Torpedo.
examples: text: I stood rigid, spellbound, watching the white wake of the torpedo. It struck us on the starboard side almost amidships. The vessel rocked as though the sea beneath it had been uptorn by a mighty volcano.
ref: 1918, Edgar Rice Burrows, The Land that Time Forgot, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008:
text: Four Japanese torpedo boats launch an attack on the Suvorov. Despite burning steadily for several hours and now taking a torpedo to the stern, the ship still lashes out at its attackers with a few remaining guns. With no pressing need to continue the attack to closer range, the torpedo boats fall back, noting the position for a night attack if Suvorov survives that long.
ref: 2019 September 18, Drachinifel, 25:58 from the start, in Battle of Tsushima - When the 2nd Pacific Squadron thought it couldn't get any worse..., archived from the original on 04 Dec 2022:
text: And if fate should turn her back on them, or turn away from them, leaving them to their own devices, and should they find themselves be sore afraid, then they would simply sail away to the other side of the world. They would ride like the wind. They would sail once more into the breach and damn the torpedos! God save the Queen! And the devil take the hindmost!
ref: 2020, Ted Bell, Dragonfire, New York, N.Y.: Berkley, published 2021, →ISBN, page 536:
topics: government
military
politics
war
synonyms: torp
fish
glosses: A cylindrical explosive projectile that can travel underwater and is used as a weapon.
topics: government
literature
media
military
politics
publishing
science-fiction
war
synonyms: torp
fish
glosses: A cylindrical explosive projectile that can travel underwater and is used as a weapon.
A similar projectile that can travel through space.
synonyms: sub
glosses: A submarine sandwich.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: A naval mine.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: An explosive device buried underground and set off remotely, to destroy fortifications, troops, or cavalry; a land torpedo.
glosses: A professional gunman or assassin.
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
synonyms: word: detonator
glosses: A small explosive device attached to the top of the rail to provide an audible warning when a train passes over it.
glosses: A kind of firework in the form of a small ball, or pellet, which explodes when thrown upon a hard object.
glosses: 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.
examples: text: In several human neurodegenerative diseases, focal axonal swellings on Purkinje cells – known as torpedoes – have been associated with Purkinje cell loss. Interestingly, torpedoes are also reported to appear transiently during development in rat cerebellum.
ref: 2016 November 2, Lovisa Ljungberg, Daneck Lang-Ouellette, Angela Yang, Sriram Jayabal, Sabrina Quilez, Alanna J. Watt, “Transient Developmental Purkinje Cell Axonal Torpedoes in Healthy and Ataxic Mouse Cerebellum”, in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, volume 10, →DOI, article 248, page 1:
topics: medicine
neuroscience
sciences
glosses: A focal ovoid swelling on the axons of Purkinje cells, observed in several diseases such as essential tremor and spinocerebellar ataxia.
glosses: A woman's shoe with a pointed toe.
glosses: A large breast; a breast with a large nipple.
synonyms: word: bifta
word: bifter
word: blunt
word: bogie
word: bomber
word: bone
word: bun
word: Camberwell carrot
word: doink
word: doinker
word: doob
word: doober
word: doobie
word: exotic cheroot
word: fatty
word: giggle stick
word: hogger
word: hooter
word: J
word: jazz cigarette
word: jay
word: jimmy
word: joint
word: juju
word: left-handed cigarette
word: muggle
word: number
word: phattie
word: reefer
word: roach
word: spiff
word: spliff
word: toke tube
word: torpedo
word: zol
word: zoot
glosses: A marijuana cigarette.
A thick marijuana cigarette.
synonyms: word: bifta
word: bifter
word: blunt
word: bogie
word: bomber
word: bone
word: bun
word: Camberwell carrot
word: doink
word: doinker
word: doob
word: doober
word: doobie
word: exotic cheroot
word: fatty
word: giggle stick
word: hogger
word: hooter
word: J
word: jazz cigarette
word: jay
word: jimmy
word: joint
word: juju
word: left-handed cigarette
word: muggle
word: number
word: phattie
word: reefer
word: roach
word: spiff
word: spliff
word: toke tube
word: torpedo
word: zol
word: zoot
glosses: A marijuana cigarette.
A cigarette containing marijuana and crack cocaine.
Derived terms: sense: an electric ray of the genus Torpedo
word: common torpedo
sense: other definitions
word: Bangalore torpedo
sense: other definitions
word: land torpedo
sense: other definitions
word: neato torpedo
sense: other definitions
word: spar torpedo
sense: other definitions
word: torp
sense: other definitions
word: torpedo boat
sense: other definitions
word: torpedo body
sense: other definitions
word: torpedo bomber
sense: other definitions
word: torpedo boom
sense: other definitions
word: torpedo catcher
sense: other definitions
word: torpedo cruiser
sense: other definitions
word: torpedo juice
sense: other definitions
word: torpedoman
sense: other definitions
word: torpedo net
sense: other definitions
word: torpedo punt
sense: other definitions
word: torpedo ram
sense: other definitions
word: torpedo roll
sense: other definitions
word: torpedo stern
sense: other definitions
word: torpedo tube
sense: other definitions
word: Torpex
Related terms: torpid