torpedo-boat destroyer

[tawr-pee-doh-boht]

noun

1. a vessel somewhat larger than the ordinary torpedo boat, designed for destroying torpedo boats or as a more powerful form of torpedo boat.

torpedo-boat destroyer

noun

1. (formerly) a large powerful high-speed torpedo boat designed to destroy enemy torpedo boats: a forerunner of the modern destroyer, from which the name is derived

Word History and Origins

Origin of torpedo-boat destroyer¹

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

The most durable type of vessel to emerge in direct response to torpedo development was the torpedo-boat destroyer, better known as simply the destroyer, which began to appear in the early 1890s.

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Viewed from the fore-bridge of H.M. torpedo-boat destroyer Calder, there was little in the outlook to suggest that a state of war had existed for twenty months.

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On these still tropic seas, dazzling in the sunshine, there was no sign of war, except an occasional torpedo-boat destroyer which flew past them at a speed of thirty knots an hour.

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She is worse than a torpedo-boat destroyer, and that is very bad indeed.

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It was said to be a "torpedo-boat destroyer," and was constructed out of the hull of an old tin boat.

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