Definition
nounAn instrument of attack or defense in combat or hunting, e.g. most guns, missiles, or swords.
nounAn instrument or other means of harming or exerting control over another.
Sentence Examples
The fingerprints left on the weapon correspond with the suspect's.
A good memory is his weapon.
She looked desperately around for a weapon.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English wepen, from Old English wǣpn, from Proto-West Germanic *wāpn, from Proto-Germanic *wēpną (“weapon”), of unknown origin, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *wēbnom.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots weepon (“weapon”), North Frisian woopen (“weapon”), Saterland Frisian Woapen (“weapon”), West Frisian wapen (“weapon; coat of arms”), Alemannic German Waaffe (“tool”), Dutch wapen (“weapon”), German Waffe (“weapon”) and Wappen (“coat of arms”), Luxembourgish Waff (“weapon”), Yiddish וואָפֿן (vofn, “weapon”), Danish våben (“weapon; coat of arms”), Faroese vákn, vápn (“weapon; whaling lance”), Icelandic vopn (“weapon”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk våpen (“weapon”), Swedish vapen (“weapon; coat of arms”), Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐍀𐌽 (wēpn, “weapon”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine.[…]One thing that is true, though, is that murder rates have fallen over the centuries, as policing has spread and the routine carrying of weapons has diminished. Modern society may not have done anything about war. But peace is a lot more peaceful."
— 2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
"“[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”"
— 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
"Rory Delap's long throw-ins are a familiar weapon to the Potters' opponents but this does not make them any easier to defend against."
— 2011 January 15, Phil Dawkes, “Stoke 2-0 Bolton”, in BBC:
"It has a whopping 5.4-litre V8, with a supercharger bolted to the top of it to help low-end pulling power. In short, it's a weapon and will happily dust a Porsche as easy as brushing your teeth."
— 2006 May 12, Joshua Dowling, “Brains or brawn”, in The Sydney Morning Herald:
"We played Endless Heights' record release show earlier this year and during their set Christian from Endless Heights' lung collapsed, but he finished the set like an absolute weapon."
— 2016 November 21, Marcus Tamp, “Hardcore 2016 Focus: Vices”, in The Music: