torpedo
verb/tɔːˈpiːdəʊ/
/tɔːrˈpiːdəʊ/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they torpedo | /tɔːˈpiːdəʊ/ /tɔːrˈpiːdəʊ/ |
| he / she / it torpedoes | /tɔːˈpiːdəʊz/ /tɔːrˈpiːdəʊz/ |
| past simple torpedoed | /tɔːˈpiːdəʊd/ /tɔːrˈpiːdəʊd/ |
| past participle torpedoed | /tɔːˈpiːdəʊd/ /tɔːrˈpiːdəʊd/ |
| -ing form torpedoing | /tɔːˈpiːdəʊɪŋ/ /tɔːrˈpiːdəʊɪŋ/ |
- torpedo something to attack a ship or make it sink using a torpedo
- The destroyer was torpedoed off the coast of Africa.
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- torpedo something (informal) to completely destroy the possibility that something could succeed
- Her comments had torpedoed the deal.
Word Originearly 16th cent. (originally referring to an electric ray): from Latin, literally ‘stiffness, numbness’, by extension ‘electric ray’ (which gives a shock causing numbness), from torpere ‘be numb or sluggish’. The noun sense dates from the late 18th cent. and first described a timed explosive device for detonation under water.
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torpedo