spear-thrower
Americannoun
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a flexible device for launching a spear, usually a short cord wound around the spear so that when thrown the weapon will rotate in the air.
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Also called atlatl. a rigid device for increasing the speed and distance of a spear when thrown, usually a flat wooden stick with a handhold and a peg or socket to accommodate the butt end of the spear.
Etymology
Origin of spear-thrower
First recorded in 1870–75
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.
He was probably a right-handed spear-thrower, judging from the oversized bones in his right arm and leg.
From New York Times ● Jun. 18, 2015
When they buried a chief, they erected spears at his head, fastened a spear-thrower to his forefinger, and laid a club on the top of his grave,547 no doubt for the convenience of the ghost.
From The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume I (of 3) The Belief Among the Aborigines of Australia, the Torres Straits Islands, New Guinea and Melanesia by Sir James George Frazer
Are the spear-thrower and the bull-roarer inevitably thought of as alive?
From Anthropology by R. R. (Robert Ranulph) Marett
Spears and wooden clubs are universal, and the use of the spear-thrower is generally distributed.
From Man, Past and Present by Alfred Court Haddon
In front of them stood a youth of about seventeen, his hand still raised and his body bent forward in the attitude of a Grecian statue of a spear-thrower.
From King Solomon's Mines by Henry Rider Haggard
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.
