weapon
/ˈwɛp(ə)n
/noun
1A thing designed or used for inflicting bodily harm or physical damage: nuclear weapons...
- Both sides were assumed to be using nuclear weapons and to be about equal in strength.
- It was certainly damage that Drake had never seen inflicted by any traditional weapons.
- We should remember that the US is the only country ever to have used nuclear weapons in war.
1.1A means of gaining an advantage or defending oneself in a conflict or contest: resignation threats had long been a weapon in his armoury...
- When nations go to war, the public language of politics and the media becomes a weapon of conflict.
- Men and women have whole armouries of weapons and every night produces a different one.
- He had other weapons in his armoury and felt cheated that the battle had finished early.
Derivatives
weaponed
- You've got to be weaponed to live and to survive in the Detroit underground.
weaponless
- Others, weaponless, filed in through the open door, their faces masks of shock.
- The modern sportive form of wrestling, an individual weaponless combat activity, probably developed in prehistory from survival fighting, when it became convenient to replace death or serious injury with a more symbolic victory.
- Basically, when you're up close and weaponless against an opponent, you can do one of several movie-style actions where you reverse the situation with fancy reflexes, take their gun and shoot them.
Origin
Old English wǣp(e)n, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch wapen and German Waffe.