harpoon

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“
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.

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Definitions (13)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A spearlike weapon with a barbed head used in hunting whales and large fish.
  2. transitive verb To strike, kill, or capture with or as if with a spearlike weapon.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (7)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (50)

  • Like a fish, Manny fell to the scummy floor and flopped as the harpoon was driven deeper into his helpless body. —  Destroyer 106: White Water
  • The whole point of the harpoon was that it was a symbol of the two worlds that Aquaman strides. —  Comic Book Resources
  • His current manifestation a nasty ugly barb-hooked into our own twenty-first century flesh like a harpoon, dragging behind it a past that now looks quaint and adorable and almost coy, Marilyn, MARILYN for Lord's sake! —  I-Mockery Blabber
  • The dive watches should be in tiptop condition as well as other gears such as the harpoon, the fins, —  Pendapat Kritis
  • Let's call a harpoon a harpoon: the more people intervene in nature, the less Green they really are. —  MercatorNet
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This word has been looked up 131 times.

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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Probably from Dutch harpoen, from Middle Dutch, from Old French harpon, possibly from harpe, clamp, claw, from Latin harpa, sickle, from Greek harpē.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. = German harpune = Danish Swedish harpun, from Dutch harpoen (pron. as English harpoon), from French harpon, orig. a cramp-iron, hence a grappling-iron, a harpoon, = Spanish arpon = Portuguese arpão, a harpoon; connected with Old French harpe, a dog's claw or paw, harper, grapple, grasp, Spanish Portuguese arpar, tear to pieces, rend, claw; these perhaps being shortened forms from the root of Latin harpago(n-), a grappling-iron, hook, drag (later Italian arpagone, a harpoon: see harpagon), from Greek ἁρπάγη, a hook, a rake, from ἁρπάζειν, snatch, seize, the shorter base appearing in ἀρπη, a bird of prey: see harpy.
  2. from harpoon, n.
 

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/hɑrˈpun/
by American Heritage

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