launch pad
Americannoun
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the platform on which a missile or launch vehicle undergoes final prelaunch checkout and countdown and from which it is launched from the surface of the earth.
-
something that serves to launch or initiate.
He used his legal experience as a launch pad for his career in politics.
noun
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a platform from which a spacecraft, rocket, etc, is launched
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an effective starting point for a career, enterprise, or campaign
Etymology
Origin of launch pad
First recorded in 1955–60
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.
An explosion on the launch pad, as Blue Origin found out earlier this year, could be a much bigger problem.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 17, 2026
The rocket-propelled launch vehicle will not take off from a launch pad.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
“We settled, I think sort of obviously, on David Bowie as the launch pad for our Lestat,” Hart said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2026
A key commercial partner no longer has a functioning launch pad.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026
That night, in a cottage near the launch pad, a twenty-seven-year-old fighter pilot named Yuri Gagarin lay still in a wooden bunk, pretending to be asleep.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
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.
