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Glite Dictionary
bangalore torpedo

bangalore torpedo

9.6
A long metal tube filled with explosives used to make a safe path through barbed wire or mines
  • noun
  • /ˈbæŋɡəˌloʊər tɔrˈpiːdoʊ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : torpedo bangalore
  • To breach enemy defenses, the engineer used a Bangalore torpedo packed with explosives.

Examples

  • During the operation, the tactical team relied on a Bangalore torpedo to safely clear landmines.

  • The Bangalore torpedo was 50 feet long and packed with 85 pounds of TNT... ...and you assembled it along the way, by hand.

    The Big Red One (1980)

  • The soldiers deployed the Bangalore torpedo to clear the barbed wire before advancing.

Surface Forms

bangalore torpedo singular
bangalore torpedoes plural

Morphology

bangalore + torpedo

Knowing 'torpedo' as an underwater missile and 'Bangalore' as a place name (or unknown) does not allow a B1 learner to infer a metal tube for clearing wire; the compound is a specialized historical military term whose sense is not compositionally derived from its parts. There is no transparent cross-linguistic clue from the constituents, so the meaning would be unpredictable without prior exposure.

Etymology

Bangalore torpedo may get its name from the city Bangalore, where British army engineers used long metal tubes packed with explosives to break through barbed wire and mines. Imagine a long tube pushed forward like a torpedo that explodes and makes a safe 'path' through obstacles — that image explains why the name now means an explosive tube used to clear a way.