Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A spearlike weapon with a barbed head used in hunting whales and large fish.
- v. To strike, kill, or capture with or as if with a spearlike weapon.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A missile weapon used in capturing whales and large fish, and either thrown by hand or fired from a gun. See harpoon-gun. In the older form of this weapon the head is a heavy, flat, triangular piece of iron with strong barbs, sharpened on the outer edges to enable it to penetrate deeply, and fastened to a handle or shank, 2½ or 3 feet long, to which is attached a long cord or rope. In a later form the head has but one barb. The common non-explosive harpoon is not employed by whalemen to kill the whale, but merely to fasten it to the boat, in order that the latter may be hauled up alongside the animal, which is then killed by a lance. (See
exploding harpoon , below.) The harpoons that are to be first used are carried at the head of the whale-boat, six being included in the outfit of a boat. The first two are known as the first and second irons; the rest as the spare harpoons, one of which is the drag-iron. The first harpoon is darted into the whale by hand, and the second follows if there is time; if not, it is thrown overboard to prevent fouling with the outgoing line. Seetoggle-iron . - To strike, catch, or kill with a harpoon.
Wiktionary
- n. A spearlike weapon with a barbed head used in hunting whales and large fish.
- n. slang A harmonica.
- v. transitive To hunt something with a harpoon.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A spear or javelin used to strike and kill large fish, as whales; a harping iron. It consists of a long shank, with a broad, flat, triangular head, sharpened at both edges, and is thrown by hand, or discharged from a gun.
- v. To strike, catch, or kill with a harpoon.
WordNet 3.0
- v. spear with a harpoon
- n. a spear with a shaft and barbed point for throwing; used for catching large fish or whales; a strong line is attached to it
Etymologies
- From Old French harpon, from Latin harpaga, from Ancient Greek ἁρπάγη (harpagē, "hook"), from ἁρπάζω (harpazō, "to snatch away, to carry off, to seize, to captivate"). (Wiktionary)
- Probably from Dutch harpoen, from Middle Dutch, from Old French harpon, possibly from harpe, clamp, claw, from Latin harpa, sickle, from Greek harpē. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“For the Inuits, anything with more range than a spear or harpoon is a quantuum leap.”
“The bomb-lance and gun are all very well; but the harpoon is the real weapon on which the whaleman must depend.”
“There is, moreover, a kind of harpoon which is shot from a gun, but being difficult to adjust, it is seldom used.”
“A harpoon is a sort of a spear, to which a long rope is attached.”
“Each man was sure his harpoon was the first thrown; so with hearts full of fury and fear, the brave whalers of”
“In the head of the harpoon is a pointed shell which explodes in the body of the whale, dealing a mortal wound, and at the butt end a thick rope is secured.”
“Attached to the harpoon was a very long coil of line, made also of braided seal-skin, and wound about a short, upright peg behind the hoop.”
Left on Labrador or, The cruise of the Schooner-yacht 'Curlew.' as Recorded by 'Wash.'
“The harpoon is a triangular, or rather a heart-shaped barbed weapon, somewhat larger than a man's head, and in the centre about as thick as his knuckles.”
“The harpoon is the weapon usually employed, though sometimes they are caught in strong nets stretched across the mouths of rivers or the narrow arms of lakes.”
The Forest Exiles The Perils of a Peruvian Family in the Wilds of the Amazon
“A harpoon is a long and sharp iron, made like a spear, so that when it strikes the whale, it goes in deep, and you cannot pull it out.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘harpoon’.
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PECH - fishing technology
anchor, berth, drop anchor, anchored floating..., artificial restoc..., bait, beam trawls, bottom gillnets, entangling nets, bottom nets, bottom-set nets, bottom pair trawl and 478 more...
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Steampunk
Words used quite often in steampunk
ansible, airship, chymical, valve, clockwork, dirigible, thaumaturgy, copper, bronze, difference engine, gear, rivets and 516 more...
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Here Fishy Fishy!
A broad list of words and phrases describing schemes and devices, from ancient to modern, that humans have devised to catch or harvest our underwater friends.
hook, line and si..., hook, line, sinker, pole, rod, bobber, artificial bait, natural bait, fly rod, spinner, plug and 76 more...
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words that sound musical but aren't
kettlebells, g-string, eardrum, codaphone, notochord, limoncello, dumbbell, Glamorgan, Saxon, harpoon, bellissimo, viandante and 8 more...
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Wordplayer's Wonderful Words
chaparral, grotesque, knork, newsmonger, thitherwards, fackeltanz, kakistocracy, sforzando, compendium, frump, inquere, phosphene and 100 more...
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-oons (once of more than one syllable)
Originally this list was to contain multisyllabic words that end in "oon," but as you can see from the comments, all hell broke loose.
doubloon, poltroon, spittoon, patroon, dragoon, bassoon, platoon, typhoon, rangoon, maroon, pontoon, monsoon and 96 more...
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Worthy Wordie
words learnt from the Internet
unthink, meme, logophile, netiquette, onomatopoeia, singularity, oed, johnson's dictionary, man friday, lewis carroll, ontology, pro bono and 143 more...
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Words grabbed from real life conversa...
If I've seen it, heard it, or marvelled at it, I'll stick it here.
cruft, ermine, redundant, shakespearean, camino, marvelous, stupendous, chagrin, shaven, sleek, smug, stillness and 325 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, H
hurlyburly, hurtle, hodgepodge, heartwood, hatch, halo, hooptedoodle, hacienda, hairpin, heyday, hardscrabble, hopper and 208 more...
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Time for a new list!
abrupt, erupt, rupture, sync, appropinquity, heterochromia, homochromatic, monochromatic, willy nilly, nitty gritty, kowtow, wonton and 455 more...
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Whaleworthy & Piratical Words
A list of favorite nautical words to be sprinkled liberally throughout speech for piratical or Melvillian effect.
batten down, back and fill, beamy, baulking, beckets, bilge, bold shore, boomjumper, breaker, larboard, abaft, ash breeze and 156 more...
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words I love
uncouth, milquetoast, clusterfuck, salacious, usurp, harpoon, unsavoury, bulwark, legerdemain, qualm, quagmire, trumps and 209 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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whaling terms
Terms defined in the glossary of Clifford W. Ashley's "Yankee Whaler".
advance, adze, after house, after oar, agent, air up, alow, ambergris, apeak, article, away, bailer and 299 more...
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Negasonic Teenage Warhead
"Wow, we really have run out of names."
Codenames of superheroes, supervillains, etc. (that are actual words, or unique spellings of actual words).rogue, gambit, wolverine, storm, cyclops, phoenix, cypher, beast, berzerker, toad, avalanche, magma and 125 more...
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RedBetty's Words
seraphim, banal, undulating, cretin, pathos, gloaming, masquerade, iambic, coulrophobic, libertine, fuck, trepanation and 39 more...
Tweets
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