javelin
- a light spear, usually thrown by hand.
- Track.
- a spearlike shaft about 8½ feet (2.7 meters) long and usually made of wood, used in throwing for distance.
- Also called javelin throw.a competitive field event in which the javelin is thrown for distance.
- to strike or pierce with or as if with a javelin.
Origin of javelin
Examples from the Web for javelin
Contemporary Examples of javelin
Like his predecessors, his background was as a javelin thrower.
But Javelin Strategy estimates that in 2012, credit-card-fraud losses were approximately $10 billion.
How to Commit a $200 Million Scam: Inside the Year’s Most Shocking Credit Card FraudDaniel Gross
February 6, 2013
Without the javelin in his hand he walked through the entire delivery for us in slow motion, describing it as he did so.
Jeremy Hunt has introduced a new sport to the Games, to go with the discus, shot put, javelin.
Historical Examples of javelin
In addition, they are taught to shoot with the bow and to fling the javelin.
CyropaediaXenophon
And here we will state shortly the most effective method of hurling the javelin.
On HorsemanshipXenophon
But not in words does the Trojan hero frame his reply: for he hurls his javelin at the foe.
The Aeneid of VirgilVirgil
The monarch rose in his car and whirled a javelin at the gates.
The Infernal MarriageBenjamin Disraeli
They attempted to withdraw the javelin, but could not move it.
The American Family RobinsonD. W. Belisle
javelin
- a long pointed spear thrown as a weapon or in competitive field events
- the javelin the event or sport of throwing the javelin
Word Origin for javelin
Word Origin and History for javelin
late 15c., from Middle French javeline (15c.), fem. diminutive of Old French javelot "a spear," probably from Gaulish (cf. Old Irish gabul "fork;" Welsh gafl "fork," gaflach "feathered spear"), ultimately from PIE *ghabholo- "a fork, branch of a tree." Also found in Italian (giavelotto) and Middle High German (gabilot). Javelot also was borrowed in Middle English, but this is the form of the word that has endured.