harpoon
Americannoun
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harpoons
plural
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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)
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harpoons,
present (3rd person singular)
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harpooned,
past participle, past
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harpooning
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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harpoonsimple
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harpoonssimple
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have harpoonedperfect
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has harpoonedperfect
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am harpooningprogressive
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are harpooningprogressive
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is harpooningprogressive
-
have been harpooningperfect progressive
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has been harpooningperfect progressive
Past
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harpoonedsimple
-
had harpoonedperfect
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was harpooningprogressive
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were harpooningprogressive
-
had been harpooningperfect progressive
Future
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
Explanation
A harpoon is a long spear that's barbed. To harpoon is to strike an animal, like a whale, with a harpoon. If you are Moby Dick, you steer clear of harpoons. There are many weapons people use to hunt, such as guns, knives, and spears. When people hunt sea life such as whales and sharks, they use a type of spear called a harpoon. A harpoon is long like a spear, but it's also barbed, so when it penetrates an animal, it sticks in. The hunter throws the harpoon, and it has a line attached to it — much like a fishing line. Hunting animals in this way is called harpooning.
Vocabulary lists containing harpoon
The Old Man and the Sea
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The Young Man and the Sea
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I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916
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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.
See Examples For:
A harpoon gun from "Jaws," a jacket worn by "The Terminator," and a "Star Wars" lightsaber hilt and C-3PO head are among the eye-catching items to be sold at auction next month.
From Barron's ● Feb. 25, 2026
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 ● Dec. 27, 2024
A stone’s throw from a few lounging sea lions, rusting storage tanks, boilers and beached harpoon boats lay testament to Deception Island’s past as a Norwegian whaling station.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 13, 2023
Out on the sea hunting a whale with a harpoon, or lost in our cyber world, human beings are still tackling the same issues.
From New York Times ● Jan. 5, 2023
Still, I do look around for the harpoon.
From "The Young Man and the Sea" by Rodman Philbrick
Crew members plowed through ice, buzzed vessels attempting to dump nuclear waste, dodged harpoons, and spent almost a week in a Siberian prison.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2025
Gray whales, once known as “Devil Fish” for their aggressive response to whalers’ harpoons, migrate annually from the cold Alaskan waters of the Pacific down to the lagoons off the coast of Mexico.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2024
Some of his videos highlight antique traps, like a 19th-century wooden trap that is shaped like a rat and shoots harpoons from its eyes, or quicksand traps that suffocate rodents.
From New York Times ● Feb. 27, 2023
When whaling in North America hit its peak in the mid-1800s, hundreds of ships armed with gun-loaded harpoons set off on hunts in the South Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.
From Salon ● Nov. 3, 2022
At dawn, when the sparkling black whale dove back into the sea, the whaleman released his harpoons.
From "The Reader" by Traci Chee
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 ● Oct. 26, 2024
North Atlantic right whales’ slow speed, tendency to float when harpooned and thick blubber — used in cosmetics, leather and soap — made them a frequent target for whalers for centuries.
From New York Times ● Jan. 30, 2024
Reykjavík suspended commercial whaling in June after a government-commissioned report said that it took too long for whales to die after they were harpooned, sometimes hours, in breach of its law on animal welfare.
From Reuters ● Aug. 31, 2023
But probably the biggest white whale I harpooned this year was my fellow New Yorker and the bard of outerborough pride, Mr. William Martin Joel.
From Slate ● Nov. 25, 2020
The second mate had fought the idea like a harpooned whale, but he had had to learn, in self-defense.
From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham
Near the turn of the 20th century, Maori sailors were recruited onto whaling expeditions for their harpooning expertise.
From New York Times ● Jul. 2, 2021
Its first episode shows a hunter supposedly harpooning a whale but the BBC "does not consider that the portrayal of his role is accurate".
From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2018
Staying outside the EU has also let Norway keep harpooning whales, despite strong opposition by the EU.
From Reuters ● Mar. 17, 2016
As it happens, to view Keillor as a dim, benevolent sweetie-pie – a manatee ripe for harpooning – is to be naive in any case: it is to mistake him for his persona.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 10, 2011
“All right. So here you can see us harpooning the whale. Oh, Jesus—here we go! Feel that tug! It’s awesome. Totally awesome. Okay, this is what they call a ‘Nantucket Sleigh Ride.’
From "Feed" by M.T. Anderson
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.
