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weapon

[wep-uhn]

Example Sentences Origin

noun

any instrument or device for use in attack or defense in combat, fighting, or war, as a sword, rifle, or cannon.

anything used against an opponent, adversary, or victim: the deadly weapon of satire.

Zoology. any part or organ serving for attack or defense, as claws, horns, teeth, or stings.

verb (used with object)

to supply or equip with a weapon or weapons: to weapon aircraft with heat-seeking missiles.

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Weapon is always a great word to know.

So is invertebrate. Does it mean:

vertebrate with body hair that nourishes young with milk from mammary glands

pertaining to creatures without a backbone

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Origin:
before 900; Middle English wepen, Old English wǣpen; cognate with German Waffe, Old Norse vāpn, Gothic wēpna (plural)

Related forms

weap·oned, adjective

weap·on·less, adjective

out·weap·oned, adjective

su·per·weap·on, noun

un·weap·oned, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source

Link To weapon

Example Sentences

Federal college aid was never intended to be used as a weapon of enforcement.

The fire truck gets firefighters to their destination and is their frontline weapon.

Researchers have developed a potent weapon against the paralyzing disease botulism.

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Federal college aid was never intended to be used as a weapon of enforcement.

The fire truck gets firefighters to their destination and is their frontline weapon.

Researchers have developed a potent weapon against the paralyzing disease botulism.

Military funded researchers are preparing to test a nonlethal weapon that combines light and sound.

The largely secret weapon would use beams of concentrated light to destroy enemy satellites in orbit.

Cho would have been stopped from purchasing a weapon.

Drones have become today's weapon of choice in counter-terrorism.

The licorice-flavored seeds of the star anise fruit may now be a major weapon against global influenza.

Oppenheimer argued that the war should not end without the world knowing about this primordial new weapon.

But many of them have had a secret weapon to retain faculty and.

For much of this period monetary policy was the weapon of choice.

Hitler may have designed a super weapon more advanced than any other weapons technology of its time.

Scientists have developed a new weapon for the war on drugs: a novel method for tracing the illicit substances on currency.

Poison may have been the preferred murder weapon of women, but its use also crossed gender lines.

The media has become a powerful weapon in the hands of many who may be unscrupulous, and without recourse for the victims.

One doctor, however, thinks he has rediscovered an old weapon that could be useful in the fight against these nasties.

The samurai also wore a shorter blade, the wakizashi, more of an indoor weapon.

It was starting to look as though the long-hoped-for general weapon against a broad range of tumors would never materialize.

The latest weapon in the arsenal against food fraud could be described as the silver lining on the mushroom cloud:.

But that weapon can only be used once and leaves a trace of acrid smoke in the department ever afterward.

The fusion bomb was a genocidal weapon with no military use, he argued.

The principal offensive weapon of a knight during battle was the lance.

The weapon fires bullets with microchips that can be programmed to detonate when they reach a specific distance.

My cats prefer vocal volume as their primary weapon.

Repayment plans, forbearance and deferrals should be a student's weapon of last resort.

Governments have investigated it as a potential biological weapon.

The ultimate hunting weapon in such an austere environment: falcons.

No, those other attempts were not meant to use the airplane as a weapon.

She then squeezed the blood off her weapon and swallowed it.

If it doesn't, the stick could easily become a weapon.

The trouble in the present war against drugs is that the main weapon chiefly hurts its wielders.

Those others were meant to blow up the plane using explosives as the weapon.

It is the weapon of those who wish to destroy education.

His use of ground-attack jets may have been exaggerated: they are hardly the weapon of choice for street-fighting.

To survive, they must compete for the same resources using every physical and psychological weapon in their arsenals.

But the commercial forest industry wields a unique weapon.

They are used by senior academics and admins as a weapon to bang you over the head with.

Or it may be the upshot of a high-level factional or personal battle, in which corruption charges are often a favourite weapon.

The new weapon in the war against terrorism: the drone.

As he turned his face toward the steward, the later drove his weapon home into the base of his skull.

And it wouldn't surprise me if a weapon was involved.

Consequently it did not apply to bearing a weapon for self-protection or hunting.

His years in prison strengthened his resolve and now he uses his camera as a weapon to fight against war and injustice.

Galton originally worked only with statistics, and in his capable hands, they proved a powerful weapon.

It appears our administration cannot do anything more until after she actually picks up a weapon or harms someone.

Guns have replaced home-made knives as the weapon of choice.

It's an escalating war that requires every weapon in the human arsenal.

It's one thing to have long range missle capability and antoher to have nuclear weapon capability.

Finally, it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon on our campus.

Particle physics came to power because it provided politicians with the ultimate weapon.

Moreover, the bone fragment showed evidence of a less forceful impact than a modern weapon would have made.

But if future tests bear out, researchers will have a powerful new weapon against the deadly prion diseases.

Mortgaging the future for short term prosperity using debt as its central weapon.

Fluxions remained a private weapon in his scientific arsenal.

These impressive growths are a symbol of status and a weapon used in epic battles across the.

The secret weapon in the fight against indoor air pollution-and deforestation-in.

One blunt word or strike from a blunt weapon can damage them permanently.

Carbon fiber has long been seen as a potentially powerful weapon in automakers' arsenal for designing more efficient vehicles.

One is to use the directed energy beam as a weapon which would primarily disrupt antenna arrays on the ground or in aircraft.

Another weapon in the war against mosquitoes on the ground is to fight from the air.

It is believed a rudimentary low yield weapon could be built already.

As its name suggests, the glossy racer snake's main weapon is its incredible speed.

His mySpace even showed his weapon along with his rhetoric.

Ring-tailed lemurs have powerful scent glands and use their unique odor as a communication tool and even as a kind of weapon.

Navy is still years away from turning a laser into a weapon for defending its ships.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

weapon (ˈwɛpən)

—n
1.	an object or instrument used in fighting
2.	anything that serves to outwit or get the better of an opponent: his power of speech was his best weapon
3.	any part of an animal that is used to defend itself, to attack prey, etc, such as claws, teeth, horns, or a sting
4.	a slang word for penis

[Old English wǣpen; related to Old Norse vápn, Old Frisian wēpen, Old High German wāffan]

'weaponed

—*adj*

'weaponless

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

weapon

O.E. wæpen "instrument of fighting and defense," from P.Gmc. *wæpnan (cf. O.S. wapan, O.N. vapn, Dan. vaaben, O.Fris. wepin, M.Du. wapen, O.H.G. waffen, Ger. wafen (neut.), waffe (fem.)), from *webno-m, of unknown origin with no cognates outside Gmc.

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"Propaganda is a soft weapon; hold it in your hands too long, and it will move about like a snake, and strike the other way."

-Jean Anouilh

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