Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An aluminum soap of various fatty acids that when mixed with gasoline makes a firm jelly used in some bombs and in flamethrowers.
- noun This jelly.
- noun An incendiary mixture of gasoline or other petroleum fuel and a thickener or gel-forming agent.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A highly incediary liquid consisting of gasoline jelled with aluminum soaps, used as a weapon of war in fire bombs and flame throwers.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
highly flammable ,viscous substance , (designed tostick to the body whileburning ), used inwarfare to cause widespreaddeath anddestruction , especially inwooded areas. - verb transitive To
spray orattack anarea using such substance.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun gasoline jelled with aluminum soaps; highly incendiary liquid used in fire bombs and flamethrowers
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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The most effective incendiary weapon was called napalm.
Whirlwind Barrett Tillman 2010
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The most effective incendiary weapon was called napalm.
Whirlwind Barrett Tillman 2010
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And for those who feel the need to defend their perimeter with fougasse, the Army Chemical Corps expedient recipe for improvised napalm is to mix powdered laundry detergent with gasoline until it has a consistency like applesauce.
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Originally the name napalm was given to a thickener that could be mixed with gasoline and other incendiary material.
1968 the Year that Rocked the World Kurlansky, Mark 2004
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Tubes belched jellied gasoline, what used to be called napalm, at the uncomprehending Cardassians.
REBELS: THE LIBERATED, BOOK III OF III DAFYDD AB HUGH 2008
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Tubes belched jellied gasoline, what used to be called napalm, at the uncomprehending Cardassians.
REBELS: THE LIBERATED, BOOK III OF III DAFYDD AB HUGH 2008
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Unlike napalm, which is designed to set large areas ablaze, and which the U.S. no longer uses, white phosphorus is usually employed to mark a target or produce a smoke screen to hide troop movements.
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Unlike napalm, which is designed to set large areas ablaze, and which the U.S. no longer uses, white phosphorus is usually employed to mark a target or produce a smoke screen to hide troop movements.
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Unlike napalm, which is designed to set large areas ablaze, and which the U.S. no longer uses white phosphorus is used to mark a target or produce a smoke screen to hide troop movements.
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And I don't think there's much moral distinction between being incinerated in the hundreds of thousands by napalm, which is what we were dropping on
Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression & War 1999
sonofgroucho commented on the word napalm
"I love the smell of napalm in the morning." Apocalypse Now.
February 20, 2008
bilby commented on the word napalm
"As long as you send our young brothers, our young lovers, to strangle their souls, petrify their hearts, twist their heads out of shape killing and torturing women and babies in Vietnam, knot up their manhood and dry out their sperm in showers of napalm, to forget the blind and gentle cock and learn the supersonic rifle and flame-thrower, for that long you're not safe, and probably for longer."
- 'Dear John', Germaine Greer, circa 1969.
March 28, 2008