harpoon gun
1
6.9
- noun
- /hɑrˈpun ɡʌn/
:
arpón
- At the marine museum, we saw an old harpoon gun used in the days of commercial whaling.
Examples
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In the rear compartment, a Black Muslim aims what looks like a huge harpoon gun mounted to the floor.
Fiction book (1996) -
- This is my uncle's harpoon gun.
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Why the hell do you have a harpoon gun?
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I am so sorry that I tried to shoot you... in the face with a harpoon gun.
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Mason swivels the big harpoon gun on the bow.
Fiction book (1998) -
A laser-guided harpoon gun will take down that leviathan.
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Harpoon gun, parachutes built into seats, ejectable roof.
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The fisherman prepared his harpoon gun to catch the giant marlin swimming nearby.
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During the whaling expedition, the crew relied on a powerful harpoon gun to hunt their target.
Synonyms
A gun that fires a long spear to catch whales
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'harpoon' (a barbed spear for whales/fish) combined with 'gun' (a device that fires projectiles) yields a device that fires harpoons. This noun–noun compound follows a common, cross-linguistic pattern and would be immediately inferable to a B1 learner who knows both words.
Etymology
Harpoon gun comes from putting together harpoon (a long spear for catching big sea animals) and gun (a tool that shoots). The clear picture is of a device that fires a spear at whales or large fish, so the term means 'a device to launch harpoons'.