HARPOON

harpoon

(noun) a spear with a shaft and barbed point for throwing; used for catching large fish or whales; a strong line is attached to it

harpoon

(verb) spear with a harpoon; “harpoon whales”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

harpoon (plural harpoons)

A spearlike weapon with a barbed head used in hunting whales and large fish.

(slang) A harmonica.

Verb

harpoon (third-person singular simple present harpoons, present participle harpooning, simple past and past participle harpooned)

(transitive) To shoot something with a harpoon.

Source: Wiktionary


Har*poon", n. Etym: [F. harpon, LL. harpo, perh. of Ger. origin, fr. the harp; cf. F. harper to take and grasp strongly, harpe a dog's claw, harpin boathook (the sense of hook coming from the shape of the harp); but cf. also Gr. harpy. Cf. Harp.]

Definition: A spear or javelin used to strike and kill large fish, as whales; a harping iron. It consists of a long shank, with a broad, fiat, triangular head, sharpened at both edges, and is thrown by hand, or discharged from a gun. Harpoon fork, a kind of hayfork, consisting of bar with hinged barbs at one end a loop for a rope at the other end, used for lifting hay from the load by horse power.

– Harpoon gun, a gun used in the whale fishery for shooting the harpoon into a whale.

Har*poon", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Harpooned; p. pr. & vb. n. Harpooning.]

Definition: To strike, catch, or kill with a harpoon.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

25 December 2024

UNAMBIGUOUS

(adjective) having or exhibiting a single clearly defined meaning; “As a horror, apartheid...is absolutely unambiguous”- Mario Vargas Llosa


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Coffee Trivia

An article published in Harvard Men’s Health Watch in 2012 shows heavy coffee drinkers live longer. The researchers examined data from 400,000 people and found out that men who drank six or more coffee cups per day had a 10% lower death rate.

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