grenade
[gri-neyd]
- a small shell containing an explosive and thrown by hand or fired from a rifle or launching device.
- a similar missile containing a chemical, as for dispersing tear gas or fire-extinguishing substances.
- to attack with a grenade or grenades.
Origin of grenade
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for grenade
Contemporary Examples
We could say we were approached by a local bad guy with a grenade in his hand.
Holmes: “I had five seconds from the time the pin falls off from that grenade until it will explode.”
Morlock: “[Holmes] let off a burst from the saw, I pulled his ass down, the grenade goes off.”
Then the grenade detonated, and he reflexively fired off “a couple” of shots in the chaos.
And the third was Mullah Adahdad, 45, an unarmed cleric who was attacked with a grenade and gunned down by several soldiers.
Historical Examples
I am to meet Monsieur de Marsac at Grenade on the day after to-morrow.
Bardelys the MagnificentRafael Sabatini
At Grenade, too I learnt the truth—that you were not Lesperon.
Bardelys the MagnificentRafael Sabatini
But if you were to have your head blown off by a grenade, you would be quite dead.
Pagan PassionsGordon Randall Garrett
Again I seized the wire with my left hand and hurled the grenade.
Fighting in FranceRoss Kay
Just as the grenade was passing through the hole it exploded.
Fighting in FranceRoss Kay
grenade
- a small container filled with explosive thrown by hand or fired from a rifle
- a sealed glass vessel that is thrown and shatters to release chemicals, such as tear gas or a fire extinguishing agent
Word Origin
C16: from French, from Spanish granada pomegranate, from Late Latin grānāta, from Latin grānātus seedy; see grain
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for grenade
n.
"small explosive shell," 1590s, earlier "pomegranate" (1520s), from Middle French grenade "pomegranate" (16c.), earlier grenate (12c.), from Old French pomegrenate (influenced by Spanish granada); so called because the many-seeded fruit suggested the powder-filled, fragmenting bomb, or from similarities of shape. See pomegranate.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper