torpedo

CEFRB2

/ˌtɔː(ɹ)ˈpiː.dəʊ/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    An underwater weapon that travels toward a target and explodes.

  2. 02

    verb

    To destroy or seriously damage a plan or effort.

Examples

  • It took many torpedo hits to send the battleship Bismarck to Davy Jones's locker.

  • The ship Tom's grandfather was on was sunk by a torpedo.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /ˌtoɹˈpi.doʊ/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A cylindrical explosive projectile that can travel quickly underwater and is used as a weapon.

  2. An electric ray of the genus Torpedo.

  3. A similar projectile that can travel through space.

More examples

In context

  • There's only one torpedo left.

  • 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 […].

  • 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

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

During the naval battle, the destroyer fired a single blank which hit the target.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

* 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.