Harpoon
noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A spearlike weapon with a barbed head used in hunting whales and large fish.
- 2 a spear with a shaft and barbed point for throwing; used for catching large fish or whales; a strong line is attached to it wordnet
- 3 A sharp tip within a disposable syringe, used to penetrate the stopper.
- 4 A harmonica. slang
"I took my harpoon out of my dirty red bandana."
- 1 To shoot something with a harpoon. transitive
"Pilot whales, also known as blackfish, were fairly plentiful, and Mundus would harpoon one or two, haul them out onto the beach, and butcher them."
- 2 spear with a harpoon wordnet
Example
More examples"At one moment the bowsprit was taking a deadly aim at the sun in midheaven, and at the next it was trying to harpoon a shark in the bottom of the ocean."
Etymology
From Old French harpon, from Latin harpaga, a rare variant of Latin harpagō, from Ancient Greek ἁρπάγη (harpágē, “hook”), from ἁρπάζω (harpázō, “to snatch away, to carry off, to seize, to captivate”). Sense and spelling perhaps influenced by Dutch harpoen (“harpoon”). Doublet of harpagon.
Related phrases
More for "harpoon"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.