harpoon
Americannoun
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a barbed, spearlike missile attached to a rope, and thrown by hand or shot from a gun, used for killing and capturing whales and large fish.
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Military. Harpoon, a jet-powered, radar-guided U.S. Navy cruise missile with a high explosive warhead designed for use against surface ships and launchable from a surface vessel, submerged submarine, or aircraft.
verb (used with object)
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
- harpoon-like adjective
- harpooner noun
- harpoonlike adjective
Etymology
Origin of harpoon
First recorded in 1590–1600; from Dutch harpoen, ultimately derived from Old French harpon “a clasp, brooch,” equivalent to harp- (from Latin harpē, from Greek: “hook”) + -on diminutive suffix
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Additionally, obsessives can view Quint’s harpoon gun and original design specifications for the mechanical sharks built to terrorize Martha’s Vineyard in 1974.
From Los Angeles Times
They got their name because they were the “right” whales to harpoon — their bodies floated for easy recovery after they were killed.
From Los Angeles Times
But “the whale who spouts gets harpooned,” Phillips later noted after the “Democratic machine” set out to quash his chances.
From Los Angeles Times
Their evidence included finding stone harpoon points that hadn’t been used since the mid-1800s embedded in the blubber of whales recently killed by traditional whalers.
From Salon
McLaren did their first runs on medium tyres in the first session to try to save softs for later but it seems to have harpooned Piastri.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
