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flamethrower

American  
[fleym-throh-er] / ˈfleɪmˌθroʊ ər /

noun

  1. a weapon, either mounted or portable, that sprays ignited incendiary fuel for some distance.

  2. Agriculture. flame cultivator.

Etymology

Origin of flamethrower

First recorded in 1915–20; flame + thrower

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.

They gave lefty flamethrower Blake Snell $182 million.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 2, 2025

South Korean police said they would seek an arrest warrant for a woman who set fire to her apartment building while trying to kill a cockroach with an improvised flamethrower, local media report.

From BBC • Oct. 20, 2025

But while those people are spared — for now — this fits with a bigger picture of Musk taking a flamethrower to an unfathomable amount of medical research and prevention work, both here and abroad.

From Salon • Mar. 11, 2025

“I’m a flamethrower when it comes to politics, but this is not politics,” Hickinbottom said of Jackson’s water system.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 19, 2024

The flamethrower lay extinguished on the ground beside him.

From "Stormbreaker" by Anthony Horowitz

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.