torpedo boat
1
6.3
- noun
- /tɔrˈpiːdoʊ boʊt/
- Specialized
:
torpedera
- You'd never know it, because when it reached the screen, the whole thing played on a torpedo boat.
- Vietnamese torpedo boat
- Israeli torpedo boats
- motor torpedo boats
Examples
-
Or he might be able to locate an English destroyer or torpedo boat and put down by it.
Fiction book (2001) -
One of our own torpedo boats is in pursuit of the target.
-
I was a gunner on a torpedo boat.
-
I stopped speaking to you after you sold those Donzis to the Israelis, and they turned them into torpedo boats.
-
Instead, they were squads or torpedo boats, like that skippered by Lt. John Kennedy, which inevitably survived tough escapes behind enemy lines.
Academic text (1990) -
Torpedo boats join British warships... and thousands of Allied planes in laying down an earthshaking bombardment.
-
The small torpedo boat swiftly maneuvered through the waves to launch its attacks.
-
During the naval exercise, the torpedo boat demonstrated its speed and stealth in coastal waters.
-
In a surprise attack, the enemy torpedo boat targeted our ships under the cover of darkness.
Synonyms
2
8.1
A small fast US Navy boat with torpedoes used in World War II
A small fast navy boat that carries torpedoes to attack ships
A small, fast boat with light weapons used to attack or patrol
A small, fast war boat used for quick attacks and patrols
How Armed
- Archaic
68
5.5
- Specialized
50
7.4
- Specialized
62
7.3
- Specialized
1
6.3
- Specialized
7
3.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: a 'boat' that carries or launches a 'torpedo', so a learner who knows both constituent nouns can infer it denotes a small warship for torpedo attacks. The noun–noun compound follows a common and predictable lexical pattern found across languages, making the sense immediately accessible to B1 learners.
Etymology
Torpedo boat comes from the image of a small, fast boat carrying or launching a torpedo to 'attack' a bigger ship, and because these boats made quick, sneaky strikes the name now means a small, speedy warship used to launch torpedoes.