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bazooka

 - 3 dictionary results

ba⋅zoo⋅ka

  [buh-zoo-kuh]
Use bazooka in a Sentence
–noun Military.
a tube-shaped, portable rocket launcher that fires a rocket capable of penetrating several inches of armor plate, as of a tank or other armored military vehicle.
Origin:
1930–35, Americanism; from its resemblance to a musical instrument so named, invented and played by comedian Bob Burns in the 1930s and 1940s
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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ba·zoo·ka   (bə-zōō'kə)   
n.  A shoulder-held weapon consisting of a long metal smoothbore tube for firing armor-piercing rockets at short range.

[After the bazooka, a crude wind instrument made of pipes, invented and named by Bob Burns (1896-1956), American comedian, probably from bazoo, kazoo.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

bazooka 
"metal tube rocket launcher," 1942, from name of a junkyard musical instrument used (c.1935) as a prop by U.S. comedian Bob Burns (1896-1956), extension of bazoo, slang for "mouth" or "boastful talk" (1877), probably from Du. bazuin "trumpet."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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