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Any one of numerous species of elasmobranch fishes belonging to Torpedo and allied genera. They are related to the rays, but have the power of giving electrical shocks. Called also crampfish, and numbfish. See Electrical fish, under Electrical.

An automobile body which is built so that the side surfaces are flush. [Cant]

A spar formerly carried by men-of-war, having a torpedo on its end.

A small fast vessel for pursuing and destroying torpedo boats.

A shell longer than a deck-piercing shell, with thinner walls and a larger cavity for the bursting charge, which consists of about 130 pounds of high explosive. It has no soft cap, and is intended to effect its damage by the powerful explosion which follows on slight resistance. It is used chiefly in 12-inch mortars.…

A headquarters for torpedo vessels and their supplies, usually having facilities for repairs and for instruction and experiments. The principal torpedo station of the United States is at Newport, R.I.

A broad stern without overhang, flattened on the bottom, used in some torpedo and fast power boats. It prevents settling in the water at high speed.

A tube fixed below or near the water line through which a torpedo is fired, usually by a small charge of gunpowder. On torpedo vessels the tubes are on deck and usually in broadside, on larger vessels usually submerged in broadside and fitted with a movable shield which is pushed out from the vessel's side to protect t…

A larger, swifter, and more powerful armed type of torpedo boat, originally intended principally for the destruction of torpedo boats, but later used also as a more formidable torpedo boat.

One skilled in the theory or use of torpedoes; also, one who favors the use of torpedoes.

A form of self-propelling torpedo.

. -- Animal electricity, the electricity developed in some animals, as the electric eel, torpedo, etc. -- Animal flower (Zoöl.), a name given to certain marine animals resembling a flower, as any species of actinia or sea anemone, and other Anthozoa, hydroids, starfishes, etc. -- Animal heat (Physiol.), the heat gen…

you have astonished him. [Fluellen had struck Pistol]. Shak. The very cramp-fish [i. e., torpedo] . . . being herself not benumbed, is able to astonish others. Holland.

A kind of fire raft or torpedo bat. The incendiary rafts prepared by Sir Sidney Smith for destroying the French flotilla at Boulogne, 1804, were called catamarans. Knight.

The torpedo, or electric ray, the touch of which gives an electric shock. See Electric fish, and Torpedo.

g of ten 12-inch guns, and of twenty-four 12-pound quick-fire guns for protection against torpedo boats. This was the first battleship of the type characterized by a main armament of big guns all of the same caliber. She has a displacement of 17,900 tons at load draft, and a speed of 21 knots per hour.…

cal organ by means of which it can give an electrical shock. The best known kinds are the torpedo, the gymnotus, or electrical eel, and the electric cat. See Torpedo, and Gymnotus. -- Electric fluid, the supposed matter of electricity; lightning. -- Electrical image (Elec.), a collection of electrical points regarded…

To cause to explode; as, to fire a torpedo; to disharge; as, to fire a musket or cannon; to fire cannon balls, rockets, etc.

or that which, produces ignition; especially, a contrivance for igniting the powder in a torpedo or the like. [Written also igniter.]

The torpedo, which numbs by the electric shocks which it gives.