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.

Verb

To launch a projectile.

# (label) To fire (a weapon that releases a projectile).

# (label) To fire (a projectile).

#* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

If you please / To shoot an arrow that self way.

# (label) To fire a projectile at (a person or target).

# (label) To cause a weapon to discharge a projectile.

# (label) To ejaculate.

# To begin to speak.

# (label) To discharge a missile; said of a weapon.

# To dismiss or do away with.

# To photograph.

To move or act quickly or suddenly.

# (label) To move very quickly and suddenly.

#* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)

There shot a streaming lamp along the sky.

#* 1884 : (Mark Twain), (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), Chapter VII

It didn't take me long to get there. I shot past the head at a ripping rate, the current was so swift, and then I got into the dead water and landed on the side towards the Illinois shore.

#*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges

# To go over or pass quickly through.

#* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)

Sheshoots the Stygian sound.

# (label) To tip (something, especially coal) down a chute.

# (label) To penetrate, like a missile; to dart with a piercing sensation.

#* (Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)

Thy words shoot through my heart.

# To feel a quick, darting pain; to throb in pain.

#* (George Herbert) (1593-1633)

These preachers make / His head to shoot and ache.

# (label) To change form suddenly; especially, to solidify.

#* (Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)

If the menstruum be overcharged, metals will shoot into crystals.

# To send out or forth, especially with a rapid or sudden motion; to cast with the hand; to hurl; to discharge; to emit.

#* (Beaumont and Fletcher) (1603-1625)

an honest weaver as ever shot shuttle

#* (1800-1859)

a pit into which the dead carts had nightly shot corpses by scores

# To send to someone.

(label) To act or achieve.

# (label) To lunge.

# (label) To deviate from kayfabe, either intentionally or accidentally; to actually connect with unchoreographed fighting blows and maneuvers, or speak one's mind (instead of an agreed script).

# To make the stated score.

(label) To measure the distance and direction to (a point).

To inject a drug (such as heroin) intravenously.

To develop, move forward.

# To germinate; to bud; to sprout.

#* (Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)

Onions, as they hang, will shoot forth.

#* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)

But the wild olive shoots , and shades the ungrateful plain.

# To grow; to advance.

#* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)

Well shot in years he seemed.

#* (1700-1748)

Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, / To teach the young idea how to shoot .

# (label) To move ahead by force of momentum, as a sailing vessel when the helm is put hard alee.

# To push or thrust forward; to project; to protrude; often with out .

#* Bible, (Psalms) xxii. 7

They shoot out the lip, they shake the head.

#* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)

Beware the secret snake that shoots a sting.

To protrude; to jut; to project; to extend.

* (Charles Dickens) (1812-1870)

There shot up against the dark sky, tall, gaunt, straggling houses.

(label) To plane straight; to fit by planing.

* (Joseph Moxon) (1627-1691)

two pieces of wood that are shot , that is, planed or else pared with a paring chisel

To variegate as if by sprinkling or intermingling; to color in spots or patches.^(w)

* (1809-1892)

The tangled water courses slept, / Shot over with purple, and green, and yellow.