launch

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
launch1

▶verb

• 1 set (a boat or ship) afloat, especially by sliding it into the water.

• 2 send (a rocket, missile, etc.) on its course.

  ■ hurl forcefully.

  ■ (launch into) begin (something) energetically and enthusiastically.

• 3 begin (an enterprise) or introduce (a new product).

▶noun an act or instance of launching something.

– origin ME: from Anglo-Norman Fr. launcher, var. of OFr. lancier (see lance).

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
launch2

▶noun

• 1 a large motorboat.

• 2 historical the largest boat carried on a man-of-war.

– origin C17: from Sp. lancha ‘pinnace’, perh. from Malay lancharan, from lanchar ‘swift, nimble’.