n., pl., -does.
- A cigar-shaped, self-propelled underwater projectile launched from a submarine, aircraft, or ship and designed to detonate on contact with or in the vicinity of a target.
- Any of various submarine explosive devices, especially a submarine mine.
- A small explosive placed on a railroad track that is fired by the weight of the train to sound a warning of an approaching hazard.
- An explosive fired in an oil or gas well to begin or increase the flow.
- A small firework consisting of gravel wrapped in tissue paper with a percussion cap that explodes when thrown against a hard surface.
- See electric ray.
- Slang. A professional assassin or thug.
- Chiefly New Jersey. See submarine (sense 2). See Regional Note at submarine.
- To attack, strike, or sink with a torpedo.
- To destroy decisively; wreck: torpedo efforts at reform.
[Latin torpēdō, numbness; electric ray, crampfish, from torpēre, to be stiff.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
