Definitions of Torpedo
n. Any one of numerous species of elasmobranch fishes belonging to Torpedo and allied genera. They are related to the rays, but have the power of giving electrical shocks. Called also crampfish, and numbfish. See Electrical fish, under Electrical.
n. An engine or machine for destroying ships by blowing them up; a mine{4}.
n. A quantity of explosives anchored in a channel, beneath the water, or set adrift in a current, and so designed that they will explode when touched or approached by a vessel, or when an electric circuit is closed by an operator on shore; now called marine mine.
n. A kind of small submarine boat carrying an explosive charge, and projected from a ship against another ship at a distance, or made self-propelling, and otherwise automatic in its action against a distant ship.
n. A kind of shell or cartridge buried in earth, to be exploded by electricity or by stepping on it; now called land mine.
n. A kind of detonating cartridge or shell placed on a rail, and exploded when crushed under the locomotive wheels, -- used as an alarm signal.
n. An explosive cartridge or shell lowered or dropped into a bored oil well, and there exploded, to clear the well of obstructions or to open communication with a source of supply of oil.
n. A kind of firework in the form of a small ball, or pellet, which explodes when thrown upon a hard object.
n. An automobile with a torpedo body.
transitive v. to destroy by, or subject to the action of, a torpedo.
transitive v. To destroy, cause to halt, or prevent from being accomplished; -- used esp. with reference to a plan or an enterprise, halted by some action before the plan is put into execution.
Form Noun, Plural Torpedoes.
How To Spell Torpedo [tawr-pee-doh]
Origin of Torpedo Early 16th century (in torpedo (sense 2 of the noun)): from Latin, literally ‘stiffness, numbness’, by extension ‘electric ray’ (which gives a shock causing numbness), from torpere ‘be numb or sluggish’. torpedo (sense 1 of the noun) dates fro
