torpedo

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
torpedo/tɔːˈpiːdəʊ/

▶noun (pl. torpedoes)

• 1 a cigar-shaped self-propelled underwater missile designed to be fired from a ship, submarine, or an aircraft and to explode on reaching a target.

• 2 US a railway fog signal.

• 3 US a firework exploding on impact with a hard surface.

• 4 (also torpedo ray) an electric ray.

▶verb (torpedoes, torpedoing, torpedoed)

• 1 attack with a torpedo or torpedoes.

• 2 ruin (a plan or project).

– derivatives
torpedo-like adjective.

– origin C16: from L., lit. ‘stiffness, numbness’, by extension ‘electric ray’.