hand grenade
17
4.2
- noun
- /hænd ɡrəˈneɪd/
- Specialized
:
granada de mano
- A soldier carefully handled the hand grenade before throwing it safely away.
Now let's say we got one box of these hand grenades.
- Now let's say we got one box of these hand grenades.
- And much as the machine gun was the symbol of death in no man's land, the hand grenade would become the symbol of death in the trenches.
- If someone is, if someone lobs a hand grenade at you, can you shoot said hand grenade out of the air?
- I, I'll see these pictures of like a copter drone dropping, you know, a hand grenade on a couple of soldiers unsuspectingly in a trench and go off.
- I think it's it's rewinding a little bit back to the hand grenade pistol.
Examples
-
Carlos takes an M26 hand grenade and puts it into an inside pocket of his coat.
Fiction book (1997) -
But Drayan's men fought off the attackers with guns, hand grenades and even just stones.
-
Did you bring hand grenades on the plane?
-
Give me a hand grenade.
-
- Man, I just wish we had some hand grenades or something.
-
- Get your hand grenades there, soldiers.
-
A second was blown up by his own hand grenade.
-
The dead man also had four hand grenades strapped to his belt.
Fiction book (2001) -
The woman was captured carrying 15 hand grenades during the previous night's battle in Da Nang.
Blog text (27) -
You want somebody to take a mess of hand grenades and assault that bunker up the slope yonder?
Academic text (2013)
Synonyms
∞
1.8
A container with explosive material that makes a large explosion and damages things
170
4.4
A small bomb you throw to explode and damage an area
4
8.8
A hand grenade that explodes and sends out metal pieces
How Explosive
- NSFW
634
3.5
- Specialized
- Specialized
17
4.2
51
2.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a grenade designed to be thrown by hand' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'hand' (by hand) with 'grenade' (a small bomb). This compound follows a straightforward, cross-linguistically common compositional pattern specifying function/use, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Hand grenade comes from a simple picture: hand shows it is meant to be thrown by a person, and grenade was used for a small, round bomb that people thought looked like a pomegranate, full of bits that fly out when it explodes. So the term means 'a small bomb meant to be held and thrown by hand'.