weapon
Americannoun
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any instrument or device for use in attack or defense in combat, fighting, or war, as a sword, rifle, or cannon.
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anything used against an opponent, adversary, or victim.
the deadly weapon of satire.
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Zoology. any part or organ serving for attack or defense, as claws, horns, teeth, or stings.
verb (used with object)
noun
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an object or instrument used in fighting
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anything that serves to outwit or get the better of an opponent
his power of speech was his best weapon
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any part of an animal that is used to defend itself, to attack prey, etc, such as claws, teeth, horns, or a sting
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a slang word for penis
Other Word Forms
- outweaponed adjective
- superweapon noun
- unweaponed adjective
- weaponed adjective
- weaponless adjective
Etymology
Origin of weapon
First recorded before 900; Middle English wepen, Old English wǣpen; cognate with German Waffe, Old Norse vāpn, Gothic wēpna (plural)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
U.S. weapons manufacturers actually performed better in the years since the end of the Cold War than during it.
Anthropic opposes its AI systems being used for mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons without human intervention.
From Barron's
Iran kept hostile forces away from its soil for decades after the 1980-1988 war with Iraq—which killed hundreds of thousands of Iranians, including from chemical weapons deployed by Saddam Hussein.
The area of greatest friction was nuclear weapons.
From BBC
He also gave Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ample chance to strike a deal on nuclear weapons and its missile force, but the ayatollah refused.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
