LAUNCH • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Launch

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/lɔntʃ/ Listen

noun

Launch n.

1.

The act of launching.

2.

The movement of a vessel from land into the water; especially, the sliding on ways from the stocks on which it is built.

3.

(Naut.) The boat of the largest size belonging to a ship of war; also, an open boat of any size driven by steam, naphtha, electricity, or the like.

Launching ways. (Naut.) See Way, n. (Naut.).

verb

Launch v. i. (past & past part. launched; pres. part. launching) (Written also lanch)

1.

To throw, as a lance or dart; to hurl; to let fly.

2.

To strike with, or as with, a lance; to pierce. (Obs.) "Launch your hearts with lamentable wounds."

3.

To cause to move or slide from the land into the water; to set afloat; as, to launch a ship. "With stays and cordage last he rigged the ship, And rolled on levers, launched her in the deep."

4.

To send out; to start (one) on a career; to set going; to give a start to (something); to put in operation; as, to launch a son in the world; to launch a business project or enterprise. "All art is used to sink episcopacy, and launch presbytery in England."

Launch v. i. To move with force and swiftness like a sliding from the stocks into the water; to plunge; to make a beginning; as, to launch into the current of a stream; to launch into an argument or discussion; to launch into lavish expenditures; often with out. "Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught." "He (Spenser) launches out into very flowery paths."

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Etymology of 'Launch'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Launch" Quotes from Famous Books

... contrived to miss each other completely until my sixth discharge, when a double-headed shot raked the whole bank of starboard oar-blades, and disabled the rowers by the severe concussion. This paralyzed the launch's advance, and allowed me to devote my exclusive attention to the other boats; yet, before I could bring the schooner in a suitable position, a signal summoned the assailants aboard the cruiser to repair damages. I did not reflect until ...

— Captain Canot - or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver • Brantz Mayer

... town, less to brace our unstrung nerves by the elastic air—less to bathe our wearied eyes in the green light of earth's bosom, than to drive away sad thoughts in the contemplation of your innocent gambols; with our stick; delight we to launch your mimic barks from the sandy shores of Serpentine; with you, glad are we to make haste, expecting the fastest sailer on the further shore; with you, we exult, once more a boy, in the speed of our ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327 - Vol. 53, January, 1843 • Various

... of the Bar Harbor life which Mr. Pulitzer enjoyed greatly and which he could not indulge in elsewhere were the long trips he made in a big electric launch on the sheltered waters of Frenchman's Bay. When the weather was fine these trips occupied two or three hours each day. J. P. sat in an armchair amidships, with two companions, very often his two older sons, to read to him or to discuss ...

— An Adventure With A Genius • Alleyne Ireland

... and make a large periagua, or canoe, to undertake the voyage. There were trees enough in the island to have built a little fleet, not of periaguas or canoes, but even of good, large vessels; but the main thing I looked at was, to get one so near the water that we might launch it when it was made, to avoid the mistake I committed at first. At last Friday pitched upon a tree; for I found he knew much better than I what kind of wood was fittest for it; nor can I tell to ...

— Robinson Crusoe • Daniel Defoe

... grande dame.' She will launch you in 'puro cielo,' as Juno might have launched one ...

— The Parisians, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

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