Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small bomb or explosive missile that is detonated by a fuse and thrown by hand or shot from a rifle or launcher.
  • noun A glass container filled with a chemical such as tear gas that is dispersed when the container is thrown and broken.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An explosive missile of any kind, usually smaller than a bomb or bombshell, and not discharged from a cannon, but thrown by hand or by a shovel or fork.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Min.) A hollow ball or shell of iron filled with powder of other explosive, ignited by means of a fuse, and thrown from the hand among enemies.
  • noun A portable fire extinguisher consisting of a glass bottle containing water and gas. It is thrown into the flames. Called also fire grenade.
  • noun grenades of various sizes, which, when used, are rolled over the pararapet in a trough.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A pomegranate.
  • noun A small explosive device, designed to be thrown by hand or launched from a grenade launcher.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a small explosive bomb thrown by hand or fired from a missile

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French (pome) grenate, pomegranate (from its shape); see pomegranate.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French grenade, from Old French grenate in the phrase pome grenate ("pomegranate"), ultimately from Latin pomum granatum ("seeded fruit"). The -d developed in French under influence of Spanish granada.

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