torpedo boatn.
A vessel carrying one or more torpedoes; now a small, fast warship from which torpedoes are discharged.
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society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > war vessel > [noun] > torpedo boat
torpedo boat1810
torpedo-vessel1877
torpedo craft1885
torpedo destroyer1896
T.B.1897
mosquito boat1911
oily wad1925
MTB1936
PT boat1941
torpilleur1950
1810 Fulton Torpedo War 44 It would be difficult for a Torpedo boat to depart from any port of America, and return without being detected.
1865 in Morning Star 2 Feb. They took advantage of the storm and darkness to send down a fleet of eight vessels of war and three torpedo boats.
1880 Standard 29 Dec. 6/1 The first [torpedo boat] ever known being a very primitive model, invented by Captain David Bushnell, of the Engineer Corps, United States Army, and launched in New York harbour in 1776.
1898 Harper's Mag. Nov. 830 She is building twelve new first~class torpedo-boats and four destroyers.
Compounds
C1. attributive and in other combinations, as torpedo-boat engagement, torpedo-boat workshop.
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1899 F. T. Bullen Way Navy 59 But torpedo-boat people are accustomed to put up with many things of which landsmen have little idea.
C2.
torpedo-boat destroyer n. (also torpedo-boat catcher) a type of small, fast warship, originally designed to prevent torpedo boats from operating against a fleet.The torpedo-catcher, officially termed torpedo-gunboat, was superseded in 1893 by the torpedo boat destroyer, a larger, faster, and more powerful torpedo boat, designed for offensive purposes; the torpedo boat being appropriated to coast and harbour defence.
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society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > war vessel > [noun] > anti-torpedo vessel
torpedo-catcher1877
catcher1885
torpedo-boat destroyer1893
torpedo destroyer1896
T.B.D.1897
1893 Daily News 14 Feb. 8/7 They are to be termed Torpedo-boat Destroyers, and in size will be between a torpedo catcher of the sharpshooter class and a first-class torpedo boat.
1895 Minutes Proc. Inst. Civil Engineers 122 51 The..torpedo-boat catchers, as they were then [1886] called–the name has since been changed to torpedo gun-boat.
1895 Minutes Proc. Inst. Civil Engineers 122 79 They had been called torpedo-boat destroyers or catchers.
1901 F. T. Jane in New Penny Mag. 30 Nov. 205/1 We had..a number of torpedo-boat catchers, which..were unable to catch the craft they were intended to chase.
Derivatives
torpedo-boat v. (transitive) to furnish or arm with torpedo boats.Apparently an isolated use.
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1884 Pall Mall Gaz. 8 Dec. 5/2 To torpedo boat our coast on the German, Russian, or Austrian scale we should require not 100 torpedo boats, but 1,000.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1913; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
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n.1810