How to Use torpedo in a Sentence

torpedo

1 of 2 noun
Definition of torpedonext
Synonyms for torpedonext
  • The battleship was sunk by a torpedo fired by a submarine.
  • But was the torpedo aimed at the Wén Rui, or at her ship?
    — Elliot Ackerman, Wired, 26 Jan. 2021
  • The blast of the first torpedo lifted him off his feet.
    — John Wilkens, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Apr. 2023
  • The more riders, the more people slept in the torpedo room.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 4 Jan. 2022
  • Celaya was sleeping on the ship’s top deck when the first torpedo hit.
    — Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 Aug. 2020
  • The downgrades would be like a torpedo in the side of the CLO industry.
    — Christopher Leonard, Fortune, 22 Nov. 2021
  • If you can’t be bothered to spit out a torpedo-size pit or slice around it, these will do!
    — Alex Beggs, Bon Appétit, 24 Nov. 2021
  • Shock raced through me like a torpedo before landing in a hard knot at the pit of my stomach.
    — EW.com, 29 Sep. 2021
  • Images showed the ship's three-tube torpedo launcher and gun mount.
    — CBS News, 25 June 2022
  • The set-up: A stealth Russian sub gets attacked by its own torpedoes.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 5 July 2023
  • The drone used during the mission has a shape similar to a small torpedo.
    — From Usa Today Network and Wire Reports, USA TODAY, 12 July 2021
  • Once located, a hole is drilled over the ice, and the team begins to recover the torpedo.
    — Jon Schlosberg, ABC News, 15 Mar. 2022
  • Or the commander of one of the other subs could have decided to launch a torpedo.
    — Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 5 Oct. 2020
  • Two of those arms seem to be longer than the other eight, and its body was shaped like a torpedo, similar to modern squid.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 8 Mar. 2022
  • The Virginias can carry a total of up to 40 cruise missiles at a time, six more than the Yasen M type, but have just four torpedo tubes.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 1 Sep. 2021
  • When cruise missiles first went to sea, submarines launched them from torpedo tubes.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 17 May 2022
  • Build Back Better bill, which Mr. Manchin helped torpedo last year.
    — Timothy Puko, WSJ, 25 Apr. 2022
  • This 30-pack of pool toys includes all kinds of shapes (rings, sticks, torpedoes), so kids ages 3 and up can practice their diving skills.
    — Phoebe Sklansky, Peoplemag, 10 July 2023
  • There is a noise that, for a Navy captain, may well be the worst sound imaginable—worse than the boom of cannon fire, the whistle of a missile, or the whoosh of a torpedo.
    — Longreads, 5 Sep. 2023
  • The footage was obtained by strapping a camera to a practice torpedo.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 2 Dec. 2020
  • The attack by dozens of Japanese aircraft armed with bombs and torpedoes left 842 men dead.
    — Brad Lendon, CNN, 30 May 2023
  • The sheer explosive power of a single typical torpedo is enough to break the keel of most ships.
    — David Axe, Forbes, 26 Jan. 2022
  • One or two of those torpedoes appear to have exploded onboard, killing most of the men on the submarine.
    — Masha Gessen, The New Yorker, 18 Mar. 2020
  • Early in the movie, the U-Boat fires the world’s slowest-moving torpedo at the chugging riverboat from a distance of no more than ten yards, and misses.
    — Kyle Smith, National Review, 27 July 2021
  • When flattened, their dorsal fin can help turn the sailfish into a torpedo that shoots through the water.
    — Monica Cull, Discover Magazine, 1 Aug. 2022
  • Meyer joined sailors crawling out from the lower decks in darkness after a second torpedo knocked out the lights and the ship began to roll.
    — Sig Christenson, San Antonio Express-News, 7 Dec. 2021
  • Kidd, along with 1,176 other sailors and Marines, was killed when the Arizona sank under multiple bomb and torpedo hits.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 25 Sep. 2020
  • Its 24 heavyweight weapons, naval cruise missiles, F21 torpedoes, and anti-ship missiles, would be launched from both torpedo tubes on the sides and at the rear of the vessel.
    — Christina MacKenzie, Popular Science, 30 Nov. 2020
  • This allowed a dozen of his stealthy unmanned torpedo boats to close within a kilometer of the vanguard and launch their ordnance.
    — Elliot Ackerman, Wired, 16 Feb. 2021
  • Jacob Jones was a Tucker-class destroyer equipped with four 4-inch guns and eight 533mm torpedo tubes.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 2 Sep. 2022
Advertisement

torpedo

2 of 2 verb
  • Her injury torpedoed her goal of competing in the Olympics.
  • The submarine torpedoed the battleship.
  • But then Trump got to work — and torpedoed Emmer’s chances.
    — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 26 Oct. 2023
  • Not this year, due to the strike that almost torpedoed the whole darn shebang.
    — Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 11 June 2023
  • The idea of female friendships -- and what can torpedo them -- is hardly a new one.
    — Brian Lowry, CNN, 10 Dec. 2020
  • All failed, torpedoed by the intransigence of one side or the other.
    — Ivan Nechepurenko Nanna Heitmann, New York Times, 27 Sep. 2023
  • The margin hasn’t been that big since the spring of 2007, less than a year before the Great Recession torpedoed the economy.
    — Washington Post, 7 Aug. 2019
  • Adam had it all as a top chef in Paris... until drugs and alcohol helped torpedo his career.
    — Stacey Grant, Seventeen, 22 Apr. 2023
  • The launch of OpenAI’s plugins threatens to torpedo these efforts, Guo says.
    — WIRED, 28 Mar. 2023
  • The Padres can, and many times do, buy insurance to protect against injuries that can torpedo big contracts.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Feb. 2021
  • What if the Bears again have a Super Bowl-caliber defense that gets torpedoed by a woeful offense?
    — Dan Wiederer, chicagotribune.com, 6 Sep. 2019
  • Nothing torpedoes a ballclub faster than bad contracts, and the Astros have done well to avoid them for most of their dynastic run.
    — Daniel R. Epstein, Forbes, 10 Feb. 2024
  • Dorsey wanted to move away from all the factions, second-guessing and finger-pointing that have torpedoed the team for years.
    — Terry Pluto, cleveland.com, 8 Sep. 2019
  • In many ways, the Fed has been untangling a web of data ever since the pandemic torpedoed through the economy more than three years ago.
    — Rachel Siegel, Washington Post, 31 Oct. 2023
  • Failure to conform to the fearlessness of the steelworker had torpedoed my dad’s self-esteem.
    — Deborah Orr, The New York Review of Books, 7 Feb. 2020
  • What the 49ers have: The 49ers have a rare commodity — a backup QB who won’t torpedo the season if forced into action.
    — Eric Branch, SFChronicle.com, 15 Apr. 2020
  • The two sides are accusing each other of torpedoing talks.
    — Washington Post, 6 Aug. 2019
  • But two pitches went awry in Wednesday’s middle innings and torpedoed Bailey’s 21st career appearance and first for the A’s against the Cubs.
    — Jack McCarthy, The Mercury News, 7 Aug. 2019
  • The request for an additional 200 million pounds torpedoed the rescue deal that had been months in the making.
    — Reuters, The Mercury News, 23 Sep. 2019
  • But that has not stopped Manchin from raising the issue -- to the delight of Republicans who have hoped that inflation fears would torpedo the bill.
    — Maeve Reston, CNN, 20 Dec. 2021
  • The move came amid several ongoing court cases even as Amazon has tried hard to torpedo the deal.
    — Niharika Sharma, Quartz, 16 Mar. 2022
  • That’s thanks to the obvious fact that Shell is an oil and gas company, not keen to torpedo its core business at a time when that business is raking in record profits.
    — Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, 24 May 2023
  • No one in the child-welfare world doubts that one parent can torpedo the other’s relationship with a son or daughter.
    — Barbara Bradley Hagerty, The Atlantic, 24 Nov. 2020
  • Just as troublesome, dating back a few games, are penalties that have torpedoed promising drives.
    — oregonlive, 29 Oct. 2019
  • Losing a player like Woolridge would be enough to torpedo most mid-major programs.
    — Brett Vito, Denton Record-Chronicle, 8 Jan. 2020
  • If those best interests torpedo the best interests of other schools then … sucks for them.
    — Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 28 July 2022
  • Not to be lost among all of the fish jokes is that fact that torpedoing a salmon several hundred feet in the air is a significant feat of engineering.
    — Scottie Andrew, CNN, 12 Aug. 2019
  • The avoidance of a small problem that then nearly torpedoed your whole reputation?
    — Demetria Gallegos, WSJ, 29 July 2023
  • After months of breaking records, what has happened to torpedo Ohio’s gambling revenue in recent weeks?
    — Laura Johnston, cleveland, 8 Dec. 2020
  • This created special risks since any one stock falling could torpedo the firm.
    — Margot Patrick, WSJ, 7 June 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'torpedo.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: