Link Centre Dictionary

weapon

wea·pon

UK/ˈwiːp.ən/ US/ˈwɛp.ən/ common informal slang uk

noun

1.

any instrument or instrumentality used in fighting or hunting

  • “he was licensed to carry a weapon”
Synonyms
2.

a means of persuading or arguing

  • “he used all his conversational weapons”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English wepen, from Old English wǣpn, from Proto-West Germanic *wāpn, from Proto-Germanic *wēpną (“weapon”), of unknown origin, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *wēbnom. Cognates Cognate with Scots weepon (“weapon”), North Frisian woopen (“weapon”), Saterland Frisian Woapen (“weapon”), West Frisian wapen (“weapon; coat of arms”), Alemannic German Waaffe (“tool”), Dutch wapen (“weapon”), German Waffe (“weapon”) and Wappen (“coat of arms”), Luxembourgish Waff (“weapon”), Yiddish וואָפֿן (vofn, “weapon”), Danish våben (“weapon; coat of arms”), Faroese vákn, vápn (“weapon; whaling lance”), Icelandic vopn (“weapon”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk våpen (“weapon”), Swedish vapen (“weapon; coat of arms”), Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐍀𐌽 (wēpn, “weapon”).

Phrases

  • academic weapon
  • Assault Weapons Ban
  • assault with a deadly weapon
  • hypersonic weapon
  • nuclear weapons inheritance project
  • nuclear weapons state
  • weapon oath
  • weapon of mass disruption

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

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Parts

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.