harpoon
noun/hɑːˈpuːn/
/hɑːrˈpuːn/
- a weapon like a spear attached to a long rope that you can throw or fire from a gun and is used for catching large fish, whales, etc.
- Traditionally whales were hunted with harpoons.
Oxford Collocations DictionaryHarpoon is used before these nouns:- gun
Word Originearly 17th cent. (denoting a barbed dart or spear): from French harpon, from harpe ‘dog's claw, clamp’, via Latin from Greek harpē ‘sickle’.Definitions on the go
Look up any word in the dictionary offline, anytime, anywhere with the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app.
Check pronunciation:
harpoon