Torpedo Meaning
/ˌtɔː(ɹ)ˈpiː.dəʊ/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAn electric ray of the genus Torpedo.
nounA cylindrical explosive projectile that can travel quickly underwater and is used as a weapon.
Sentence Examples
It took many torpedo hits to send the battleship Bismarck to Davy Jones's locker.
There's only one torpedo left.
The ship Tom's grandfather was on was sunk by a torpedo.
CEFR Practice Quiz
During the naval battle, the destroyer fired a single ____ which hit the target.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The submarine launched a powerful ____ toward the enemy ship to try and sink it during the naval battle today.
Word Origin & History
* 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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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"
— 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]:
"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 […]."
— 1790, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men:
""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!""
— 1997, Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon, New York: Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 286:
"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."
— 1918, Edgar Rice Burrows, The Land that Time Forgot, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008:
"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."
— 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:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
During the naval battle, the destroyer fired a single ____ which hit the target.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The submarine launched a powerful ____ toward the enemy ship to try and sink it during the naval battle today.