Grenade

//ɡɹəˈneɪd// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A small explosive device, designed to be thrown by hand or launched using a rifle, grenade launcher, or rocket.
  2. 2
    a small explosive bomb thrown by hand or fired from a missile wordnet
  3. 3
    A pomegranate. obsolete
  4. 4
    A charge similar to a fireball, and made of a disc-shaped bomb shell, but with only one set of flames at the top.
  5. 5
    An unattractive girl. slang
Verb
  1. 1
    To use grenade(s) upon.

    "Some of the infantry got pinned down by it, and from cover kept up the battle by grenading rubble piles or any other likely spots ahead of them."

  2. 2
    Of an engine: to be violently wrecked so that the internal components burst out. intransitive, slang

Synonyms

All synonyms
aerial bombantipersonnel bombbombbombshellcarcassconcussion grenade

Example

More examples

"The grenade blew up before the terrorist could throw it, and his arm was blown off!"

Etymology

Borrowed from French grenade, from Old French grenate in the phrase pomme grenate (“pomegranate”), ultimately from Medieval Latin pomum (“apple”) + granatum (“having grains”). The -d developed in French under influence of Spanish granada. Doublet of garnet.

Related phrases

fall on a grenadefire grenadegrenade launcherjump on a grenademath grenade

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.