launch
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: lônch
ipa: /lɔːnt͡ʃ/
note: some accents
enpr: länch
ipa: /lɑːnt͡ʃ/
note: some accents
enpr: lônch
ipa: /lɔnt͡ʃ/
ipa: [lɒnt͡ʃ]
ipa: /lɑnt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -ɔːntʃ
Forms: form: launches
form: launching
form: launched
form: launched
form: launcht
form: launcht
form: lanch
Etymology: From Middle English launchen (“to throw as a lance”), Old French lanchier, another form (Old Northern French/Norman variant, compare Jèrriais lanchi) of lancier, French lancer, from lance.
Senses: examples: text: There they were met by four thousand Ha'apa'a warriors, who launched a volley of stones and spears[…]
ref: 2011, Stephen Budiansky, Perilous Fight: America's Intrepid War with Britain on the High Seas, 1812-1815, page 323:
synonyms: word: fling
word: hurl
word: bung
word: cast
word: chuck
word: chunk
word: cook
word: dash
word: dump
word: feck
word: fling
word: jerk
word: heave
word: hield
word: hoy
word: huck
word: hurl
word: hurtle
word: launch
word: lob
word: peck
word: peg
word: pick
word: pitch
word: precipitate
word: project
word: quoit
word: shy
word: slight
word: skew
word: sling
word: thrill
word: throw
word: toss
word: traject
word: warp
word: whang
word: whip
word: whop
word: wing
glosses: To throw (a projectile such as a lance, dart or ball); to hurl; to propel with force.
examples: text: And launch your hearts with lamentable wounds.
ref: 1591, Edmund Spenser, The Teares of the Muses:
synonyms: lance
pierce
glosses: To pierce with, or as with, a lance.
examples: text: Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 5:4:
text: 1725–1726, Alexander Pope, Homer's Odyssey (translation), Book V
With stays and cordage last he rigged the ship, / And rolled on levers, launched her in the deep.
text: The navy launched another ship.
glosses: To cause (a vessel) to move or slide from the land or a larger vessel into the water; to set afloat.
examples: text: A cheap rocket that could launch military reconnaisance satellites for developing countries has become involved in a tangled web of Nazi rocket scientists, Penthouse magazine, KGB disinformation, and a treaty reminiscent of the height of colonialism in Africa.
ref: 1978, Farooq Hussain, “Volksraketen for the Third World”, in New Scientist:
text: NASA launched several unmanned rockets before launching any of the Mercury astronauts.
glosses: To cause (a rocket, balloon, etc., or the payload thereof) to begin its flight upward from the ground.
examples: text: Our business launched a new project.
text: All art is uſed to ſink Epiſcopacy, & lanch Presbytery in England.
ref: 1649, Eikon Basilike:
text: Here was my chance. I took the old man aside, and two or three glasses of Old Crow launched him into reminiscence.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: “[…] They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: I have ordered House Atreides to occupy Arrakis to mine the spice, thus replacing their enemies the Harkonnens. House Atreides will not refuse because of the tremendous power they think they will gain. Then, at an appointed time, Baron Harkonnen will return to Arrakis and launch a sneak attack on House Atreides. I have promised the Baron five legions of my Sardaukar terror troops.
ref: 1984, 8:38 from the start, in Dune (Science Fiction), →OCLC:
glosses: To send out; to start (someone) on a mission or project; to give a start to (something); to put in operation
examples: text: Double-click an icon to launch the associated application.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To start (a program or feature); to execute or bring into operation.
examples: text: On September 3rd Bionym, a Canadian firm, launched Nymi, a bracelet which detects the wearer’s heartbeat.
ref: 2013 September 7, “Kill or cure”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8852:
glosses: To release; to put onto the market for sale
glosses: Of a ship, rocket, balloon, etc.: to depart on a voyage; to take off.
examples: text: In our language, Spenſer has not contented himſelf with this ſubmiſſive manner of imitation : he launches out into very flowery paths[…]
ref: 1718, Matthew Prior, Solomon: On the Vanity of the World, Preface:
text: My class was wearing butter-yellow pique dresses, and Momma launched out on mine. She smocked the yoke into tiny crisscrossing puckers, then shirred the rest of the bodice.
ref: 1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 23, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings:
text: to launch into an argument or discussion
text: to launch into lavish expenditures
glosses: To move with force and swiftness like a sliding from the stocks into the water; to plunge; to begin.
raw_tags: with out
examples: text: After clicking the icon, the application will launch.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To start to operate.
raw_tags: of a program
Derived terms: air-launch
autolaunch
failure to launch
hard-launch
launchable
launchee
launcher
launch forth
launchful
launch into
launch lunch
launch one's lunch
launchway
mislaunch
outlaunch
overlaunch
postlaunch
prelaunch
relaunch
soft-launch
unlaunch
unlaunched