Verb

(es)

To throw, as a lance or dart; to hurl; to let fly; to send off, propel with force.

* 2011 , Stephen Budiansky, Perilous Fight: America's Intrepid War with Britain on the High Seas, 1812-1815 , page 323

There they were met by four thousand Ha'apa'a warriors, who launched a volley of stones and spears

(obsolete) To pierce with, or as with, a lance.

* 1591 , (Edmund Spenser), The Teares of the Muses

And launch your hearts with lamentable wounds.

To cause to move or slide from the land into the water; to set afloat.

*

Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.

* 1725–1726 , (Alexander Pope), Homer's Odyssey (translation), Book V

With stays and cordage last he rigged the ship, / And rolled on levers, launched her in the deep.

To send out; to start (one) on a career; to set going; to give a start to (something); to put in operation.

* 1649 , (Eikon Basilike)

All art is u?ed to ?ink Epi?copacy, & lanch Presbytery in England .

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2 , passage=Here was my chance. I took the old man aside, and two or three glasses of Old Crow launched him into reminiscence.}}

* , chapter=13

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=“[…] They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-09-07, volume=408, issue=8852, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Kill or cure , passage=On September 3rd Bionym, a Canadian firm, launched Nymi, a bracelet which detects the wearer’s heartbeat.}}

(often with out) To move with force and swiftness like a sliding from the stocks into the water; to plunge; to make a beginning.

* 1718 , (Matthew Prior), Solomon: On the Vanity of the World , Preface

In our language, Spen?er has not contented him?elf with this ?ubmi??ive manner of imitation : he launches out into very flowery paths

* 1969 , (Maya Angelou), I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , ch. 23:

My class was wearing butter-yellow pique dresses, and Momma launched out on mine. She smocked the yoke into tiny crisscrossing puckers, then shirred the rest of the bodice.