Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A spearlike weapon with a barbed head used in hunting whales and large fish.
- transitive verb To strike, kill, or capture with or as if with a spearlike weapon.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To strike, catch, or kill with a harpoon.
- noun A missile weapon used in capturing whales and large fish, and either thrown by hand or fired from a gun. See
harpoon-gun .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun 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.
- noun a kind of hayfork, consisting of a bar with hinged barbs at one end and a loop for a rope at the other end, used for lifting hay from the load by horse power.
- noun a gun used in the whale fishery for shooting the harpoon into a whale.
- transitive verb To strike, catch, or kill with a harpoon.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
spearlike weapon with abarbed head used inhunting whales and largefish . - noun slang A
harmonica . - verb transitive To
hunt something with a harpoon.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb spear with a harpoon
- noun 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 The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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For the Inuits, anything with more range than a spear or harpoon is a quantuum leap.
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For the Inuits, anything with more range than a spear or harpoon is a quantuum leap.
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There is, moreover, a kind of harpoon which is shot from a gun, but being difficult to adjust, it is seldom used.
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A harpoon is a sort of a spear, to which a long rope is attached.
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Each man was sure his harpoon was the first thrown; so with hearts full of fury and fear, the brave whalers of
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The bomb-lance and gun are all very well; but the harpoon is the real weapon on which the whaleman must depend.
Swept Out to Sea Clint Webb Among the Whalers W. Bertram Foster
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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.
From Pole to Pole A Book for Young People Sven Anders Hedin 1908
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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.' 1887
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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 Lieutenant and Commander Hall, Basil, 1788-1844 1862
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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 Mayne Reid 1850
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