Word Meanings - TORPEDO - Book Publishers vocabulary database

Any one of numerous species of elasmobranch fishes belonging to Torpedo and allied genera. They are related to the rays, but have the power of giving electrical shocks. Called also crampfish, and numbfish. See Electrical fish, under Electrical.

Additional info about word: TORPEDO

Any one of numerous species of elasmobranch fishes belonging to Torpedo and allied genera. They are related to the rays, but have the power of giving electrical shocks. Called also crampfish, and numbfish. See Electrical fish, under Electrical. Note: The common European torpedo and the American species are the best known. 2. An engine or machine for destroying ships by blowing them up. Specifically: -- A quantity of explosives anchored in a channel, beneath the water, or set adrift in a current, and so arranged that they will be exploded when touched by a vessel, or when an electric circuit is closed by an operator on shore. A kind of small submarine boat carrying an explosive charge, and projected from a ship against another ship at a distance, or made self-propelling, and otherwise automatic in its action against a distant ship.

Related words: (words related to TORPEDO)

• UNDERDOER
  One who underdoes; a shirk.
• UNDERBRED
  Not thoroughly bred; ill-bred; as, an underbred fellow. Goldsmith.
• CALLOSUM
  The great band commissural fibers which unites the two cerebral hemispheres. See corpus callosum, under Carpus.
• UNDERSECRETARY
  A secretary who is subordinate to the chief secretary; an assistant secretary; as, an undersecretary of the Treasury.
• CALLOW
  1. Destitute of feathers; naked; unfledged. An in the leafy summit, spied a nest, Which, o'er the callow young, a sparrow pressed. Dryden. 2. Immature; boyish; "green"; as, a callow youth. I perceive by this, thou art but a callow maid. Old Play .
• TORPEDO
  Any one of numerous species of elasmobranch fishes belonging to Torpedo and allied genera. They are related to the rays, but have the power of giving electrical shocks. Called also crampfish, and numbfish. See Electrical fish, under Electrical.
• UNDERPLOT
  1. A series of events in a play, proceeding collaterally with the main story, and subservient to it. Dryden. 2. A clandestine scheme; a trick. Addison.
• CALLE
  A kind of head covering; a caul. Chaucer.
• UNDERNICENESS
  A want of niceness; indelicacy; impropriety.
• UNDERDOLVEN
  p. p. of Underdelve.
• UNDERSOIL
  The soil beneath the surface; understratum; subsoil.
• RELATIONSHIP
  The state of being related by kindred, affinity, or other alliance. Mason.
• UNDERPROP
  To prop from beneath; to put a prop under; to support; to uphold. Underprop the head that bears the crown. Fenton.
• UNDERNIME
  1. To receive; to perceive. He the savor undernom Which that the roses and the lilies cast. Chaucer. 2. To reprove; to reprehend. Piers Plowman.
• UNDERCREST
  To support as a crest; to bear. Shak.
• TORPEDO STATION
  A headquarters for torpedo vessels and their supplies, usually having facilities for repairs and for instruction and experiments. The principal torpedo station of the United States is at Newport,
• UNDERGROUND INSURANCE
  Wildcat insurance.
• UNDERSAY
  To say by way of derogation or contradiction. Spenser.
• UNDERTAPSTER
  Assistant to a tapster.
• ALLICIENT
  That attracts; attracting. -- n.
• GALLIASS
  See GALLEASS
• PRELATIST
  One who supports of advocates prelacy, or the government of the church by prelates; hence, a high-churchman. Hume. I am an Episcopalian, but not a prelatist. T. Scott.
• DALLIANCE
  1. The act of dallying, trifling, or fondling; interchange of caresses; wanton play. Look thou be true, do not give dalliance Too mnch the rein. Shak. O, the dalliance and the wit, The flattery and the strifeTennyson. 2. Delay or procrastination.
• MAJOR GENERAL
  . An officer of the army holding a rank next above that of brigadier general and next below that of lieutenant general, and who usually commands a division or a corps.
• GYMNASTICALLY
  In a gymnastic manner.
• KAKARALLI
  A kind of wood common in Demerara, durable in salt water, because not subject to the depredations of the sea worm and barnacle.
• HYPERCRITICALLY
  In a hypercritical manner.
• SCALLION
  A kind of small onion , native of Palestine; the eschalot, or shallot. 2. Any onion which does not "bottom out," but remains with a thick stem like a leek. Amer. Cyc.
• UNEMPIRICALLY
  Not empirically; without experiment or experience.