Word Direct Answers

What does "torpedo" mean?

Torpedo: An engine or machine for destroying ships by blowing them up. Specifically: -- (a) A quantity of explosives anchored in a channel, beneath the water, or set adrift in a current, and so arranged that they will be exploded when touched by a vessel, or when an electric circuit is closed by an operator on shore. (b) 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.

Additional senses

  1. 2.(Mil.) A kind of shell or cartridge buried in earth, to be exploded by electricity or by stepping on it.
  2. 3.(Railroad) A kind of detonating cartridge or shell placed on a rail, and exploded when crushed under the locomotive wheels, -- used as an alarm signal.
  3. 4.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.
  4. 5.A kind of firework in the form of a small ball, or pellet, which explodes when thrown upon a hard object. Fish torpedo, a spindle- shaped, or fish-shaped, self-propelling submarine torpedo. -- Spar torpedo, a canister or other vessel containing an explosive charge, and attached to the end of a long spar which projects from a ship or boat and is thrust against an enemy's ship, exploding the torpedo. -- Torpedo boat, a vessel adapted for carrying, launching, operating, or otherwise making use of, torpedoes against an enemy's ship. -- Torpedo nettings, nettings made of chains or bars, which can be suspended around a vessel and allowed to sink beneath the surface of the water, as a protection against torpedoes.
  5. 6.to destroy by, or subject to the action of, a torpedo. London Spectator.

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