weapon

Englisch

Etymology

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. Cognate with Scots wapyn, wappen (“weapon”), West Frisian wapen (“weapon”), Dutch wapen (“weapon; coat of arms”), Low German wapen (“weapon”), German Waffe (“weapon”) and Wappen (“coat of arms”), Danish våben (“weapon; coat of arms”) Swedish vapen (“weapon; coat of arms”), Norwegian Bokmål våpen (“weapon”), Icelandic vopn (“weapon”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɛp.ən/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Hyphenation: weap‧on
  • Rhymes: -ɛpən
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /ˈwiːp.ən/

Nomen

weapon (plural weapons)

1. An instrument of attack oder defense in combat oder hunting, e.g. most guns, missiles, or swords; arm.

   The club that is now mostly used for golf was once a common weapon.

   Hyponyms: see Thesaurus:weapon

   • 2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. […] One thing that is true, though, is that murder rates have fallen over the centuries, as policing has spread and the routine carrying of weapons has diminished. Modern society may not have done anything about war. But peace is a lot more peaceful.

2. An instrument or other means of harming or exerting control over another.

   Money is the main weapon of modern oligarchs.

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     “[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”

   • 2011 January 15, Phil Dawkes, “Stoke 2-0 Bolton”, in BBC:

     Rory Delap's long throw-ins are a familiar weapon to the Potters' opponents but this does not make them any easier to defend against.

3. (informal, humorous) A tool of any kind.

   Choose your weapon.

4. (British, slang, derogatory) An idiot, an oaf, a fool, a tool; a contemptible or incompetent person.
5. (Australia, slang) A very skilled, competent, or capable person or thing worthy of awe.

   Synonyms: legend, champion, unit

   • 2006 May 12, Joshua Dowling, “Brains or brawn”, in The Sydney Morning Herald‎^[2]:

     It has a whopping 5.4-litre V8, with a supercharger bolted to the top of it to help low-end pulling power. In short, it's a weapon and will happily dust a Porsche as easy as brushing your teeth.

   • 2016 November 21, Marcus Tamp, “Hardcore 2016 Focus: Vices”, in The Music‎^[3]:

     We played Endless Heights' record release show earlier this year and during their set Christian from Endless Heights' lung collapsed, but he finished the set like an absolute weapon.

   • 2020 October, Alley Pascoe, “Megan Washington's Love Letter To RuPaul”, in Marie Claire‎^[4]:

     I adore her in Easter Parade and Meet Me in St. Louis, but my favourite performance of hers is her concert at [New York’s] Carnegie Hall. She’s a total weapon on that stage.

   • 2021 April 20, Will Swanton, “From one goofy-footer to another: American Caroline Marks 'stoked' to win Narrabeen Classic”, in The Australian‎^[5]:

     American teenager Caroline Marks was trotting across the sand on her dream day at North Narrabeen when Luke Egan called out to her: "You weapon!" [...] Egan was mentoring Marks in between commentary stints. He was one of the people to chair the weapon up the beach, calling out to her: "What did I tell you!"

6. (rare, slang) The human genital organ.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:genitalia

   • 2013 December 3, Beamon (lyrics and music), “Lord Love Me” (track 2), in The BeamGod: Lost Files‎^[6]:

     Young motherfucking legend, niggas just pretending
     I spit my shit, infectious, don't come in my section
     Or get wet bitch with that weapon
     Lift the pussy, yeah I bench press it, and I been stressing since a adolescent

   • 2017 April 13, Mavado (lyrics and music), “Ride All Night (My Kinda Girl)”‎^[7] (in Jamaican Creole):

     Weh you get da pussy deh from?
     Hey, gyal me love you
     Md love the way you use your weapon
     Gyal, your pussy tight like a vice grip

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2019 February 14, “Jimmy Neutron” (track 4), in NQTATS aka CAVIN KON (lyrics), A Taste Of My Heart‎^[8]:

     Bring my baby a present
     Put your head on the dresser
     She open her legs, then I whip out my weapon
     Sj immortal, the fuck is checking

   • 2019 June 29, “3 Minutes”, Rio Da Yung OG (lyrics)‎^[9]:

     I bust a bitch down in forty-five seconds
     If it's good, Imma pop two Percs, and come back for seconds
     She probably got a felony, that's an illegal weapon
     Stick my whole hand in her pussy, I was tryna stretch it

Hyponyms

• ABC weapon
• anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW)
• anti-tank weapon
• assault weapon
• atomic weapon
• binary weapon
• biological weapon
• bioweapon
• chemical weapon
• cold weapon
• conventional weapon
• crew-served weapon
• cyberweapon
• digital weapon
• doomsday weapon
• drop weapon
• energy weapon
• gun
• mass destruction weapon
• murder weapon
• nuclear weapon
• personal defense weapon
• pistol
• radiological weapon
• ranged weapon
• section automatic weapon
• siege weapon
• space weapon
• squad automatic weapon
• superweapon
• sword
• tectonic weapon
• thermobaric weapon
• thermonuclear weapon
• weapon of mass destruction (WMD)
• weapon of wholesale destruction

 

Derived terms

• academic weapon
• beweapon
• nonweapon
• superweaponry
• weaponed
• weaponeer
• weaponization
• weaponize
• weaponless
• weaponlike
• weapon oath
• weapon of mass disruption
• weaponry
• weapon-salve
• weapons-grade
• weaponsmith
• weaponsmithing

 

Derived terms

• Assault Weapons Ban (AWB)
• assault with a deadly weapon (ADW)
• nuclear weapons inheritance project (NWIP)
• nuclear weapons state (NWS)
• personal defence weapon
• weapon-schaw
• weapons free
• weapons hold
• weapons tight

 

Translations

instrument of attack or defense in combat

• Abkhaz: абџьар (abdžar)
• Adyghe: ӏашэ (ʼašɛ), ашэ (ašɛ)
• Afrikaans: wapen (af)
• Albanian: armë (sq) f, shkluhë f (archaic)
• Amharic: የጦር መሣሪያ (yäṭor mäśariya)
• Arabic: سِلَاح m (silāḥ), أَسْلِحَة (ar) pl (ʔasliḥa)

  Egyptian Arabic: سلاح m (silāḥ)

• Aragonese: arma
• Aramaic:

  Hebrew: זינא m (zaynā’)

  Syriac: ܙܝܢܐ m (zaynā’)

• Armenian: զենք (hy) (zenkʻ)
• Aromanian: armã f, tufeche
• Asturian: arma f
• Avar: ярагъ (jarağ)
• Azerbaijani: silah (az), yaraq
• Bashkir: ҡорал (qoral)
• Basque: arma (eu)
• Bats: გერწ class dd (gerc̣)
• Belarusian: збро́я f (zbrója), ару́жжа n (arúžža)
• Bengali: অস্ত্র (bn) (ostro), হাতিয়ার (bn) (hatiẏar)
• Breton: arm (br) m
• Bulgarian: оръ́жие (bg) n (orǎ́žie)
• Burmese: လက်နက် (my) (laknak)
• Buryat: зэбсэг (zebseg)
• Catalan: arma (ca) f
• Cebuano: hinagiban
• Chechen: герз (gerz)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 武器 (mou⁵ hei³), 兵器 (bing¹ hei³)

  Dungan: җүнчи (žünči)

  Hokkien: 武器 (zh-min-nan) (bú-khì)

  Mandarin: 武器 (zh) (wǔqì), 兵器 (zh) (bīngqì), 軍器／军器 (zh) (jūnqì)

  Wu: 武器 (⁶vu-chi)

• Chukchi: ирвын (irvyn)
• Czech: zbraň (cs) f
• Dalmatian: jarma f
• Danish: våben (da) n
• Dutch: wapen (nl) n
• Egyptian: (jry), (ꜥḥꜣw)
• Esperanto: armilo
• Estonian: relv (et)
• Extremaduran: arma
• Faroese: vápn n
• Finnish: ase (fi), astalo (fi)
• French: arme (fr) f
• Friulian: arme f
• Galician: arma (gl) f
• Georgian: იარაღი (ka) (iaraɣi), საჭურველი (sač̣urveli)

  Old Georgian: საბრძოლელი (sabrʒoleli), საბრძოლი (sabrʒoli), საჭურველი (sač̣urveli), საჭურავი (sač̣uravi), საჭური (sač̣uri)

• German: Waffe (de) f
• Gothic: 𐍅𐌴𐍀𐌽 n (wēpn)
• Greek: όπλο (el) n (óplo)

  Ancient: ὅπλον n (hóplon), (Epic) ἄορ n (áor)

• Greenlandic: sakku
• Guaraní: mboka (firearm)
• Gujarati: શસ્ત્ર (gu) (śastra), હથિયાર n (hathiyār)
• Hebrew: כְּלִי נֶשֶׁק (he) m (kli néshek)
• Hiligaynon: hinganiban
• Hindi: हथियार (hi) m (hathiyār), शस्त्र (hi) m (śastra), आयुध (hi) m (āyudh)
• Hungarian: fegyver (hu)
• Icelandic: vopn (is) n
• Ido: armo (io)
• Ilocano: igam
• Indonesian: senjata (id)
• Ingush: герз (gerz)
• Interlingua: arma
• Irish: arm
• Isnag: ixam
• Italian: arma (it) f
• Japanese: 武器 (ja) (ぶき, buki), 兵器 (ja) (へいき, heiki)
• Javanese: gaman (jv)
• Kannada: ಆಯುಧ (kn) (āyudha)
• Karachay-Balkar: сауут (sawut)
• Kazakh: қару (qaru)
• Khmer: គ្រឿងអាវុធ (krɨəng ʼaavut), អាវុធ (ʼaavut)
• Kongo: buta
• Korean: 무기(武器) (ko) (mugi), 병기(兵器) (ko) (byeonggi)
• Kumyk: савут (sawut)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: چەک (ckb) (çek)

  Northern Kurdish: çek (ku) f, sîleh (ku) m

• Kyrgyz: курал (ky) (kural), курал-жарак (kural-jarak), жарак (ky) (jarak)
• Ladin: erma f
• Lao: ຄຳເພິງ (kham phœng), ອາວຸດ (lo) (ʼā wut)
• Latin: tēlum n, arma (la) n pl
• Latvian: ierocis m
• Lithuanian: ginklas m
• Low German: Wapen n
• Lü: ᦁᦱᦞᦴᧉᦒ (ʼaavuu²th)
• Luxembourgish: Waff (lb) f
• Macedonian: оружје n (oružje)
• Malay: senjata (ms)
• Malayalam: ആയുധം (ml) (āyudhaṁ)
• Maltese: arma f
• Marathi: शस्त्र (śastra), हत्यार n (hatyār)
• Middle Low German: wapen (wâpen)
• Mirandese: arma
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: зэвсэг (mn) (zevseg)

  Mongolian: ᠵᠡᠪᠰᠡᠭ (ǰebseg)

• Nogai: савыт (savıt)
• Northern Sami: vearju
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: våpen (no) n

  Nynorsk: våpen n

• Occitan: arma (oc) f
• Odia: ଶସ୍ତ୍ର (or) (śastra)
• Old Church Slavonic:

  Cyrillic: орѫжиѥ n (orǫžije)

• Old East Slavic: оружие n (oružije)
• Old English: wǣpn n
• Old Galician-Portuguese: arma
• Old Norse: vápn n
• Pali: āvudha n
• Pashto: وسله (ps) f (wasla), اسلحه (ps) f (asleha)
• Persian: سِلاح (fa) (selâh), اَسْلَحِه (fa) (aslahe), اَسْلِحِه (fa) (aslehe)
• Polish: broń (pl) f, oręż m
• Portuguese: arma (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਹਥਿਆਰ (hathiāra)
• Romanian: armă (ro) f
• Romansch: arma f
• Russian: ору́жие (ru) n (orúžije)
• Sanskrit: आयुध (sa) n (āyudha)
• Sardinian: àrma f
• Saterland Frisian: Woapen n
• Scots: wapyn, wappen
• Scottish Gaelic: arm (gd) m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: о̀рӯжје n

  Roman: òrūžje (sh) n

• Shan: လၢၵ်ႈၼၢၵ်ႈ (shn) (lāak nāak), ၵွင်ႈၵၢင်ႇ (shn) (kāung kàang)
• Sicilian: arma (scn) f
• Slovak: zbraň (sk) f
• Slovene: orožje n
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: broń f

  Upper Sorbian: bróń f

• Spanish: arma (es) f
• Swahili: silaha (sw)
• Swedish: vapen (sv) n or n pl
• Tagalog: sandata
• Tajik: силоҳ (tg) (siloh), яроқ (yaroq), аслиҳа pl (asliha)
• Tamil: ஆயுதம் (ta) (āyutam)
• Taos: hų́łoliną
• Tatar: корал (tt) (qoral)
• Telugu: ఆయుధము (te) (āyudhamu)
• Thai: อาวุธ (th) (aa-wút)
• Tibetan: མཚོན་ཆ (mtshon cha), གོ་མཚོན (go mtshon)
• Tigrinya: ብረት (bərät)
• Tundra Nenets: мирв (ḿirw°)
• Tupinambá: popesûara
• Turkish: silah (tr), yarak (tr), savut (tr)
• Turkmen: ýarag
• Ukrainian: збро́я (uk) f (zbrója), ору́жжя n (orúžžja) (obsolete)
• Urdu: ہَتِھیار m (hathiyār), اَسْلِحَہ f pl (asliha), اَسْلَحَہ f pl (aslaha)
• Uyghur: قورال (qoral)
• Uzbek: qurol (uz), yarogʻ (uz), siloh (uz) (dated)
• Venetian: arma (vec)
• Vietnamese: vũ khí (vi) (武器), binh khí (vi) (兵器)
• Welsh: arf (cy) m or f, erfyn m
• West Frisian: wapen
• Yiddish: וואָפֿן m or n (vofn), כּלי־זיין m or n (klezayen)
• Zazaki: çek
• Zhuang: cungqcax, vujgi

means of harming or exerting control

• Dutch: wapen (nl) n
• Greek: όπλο (el) n (óplo)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: våpen (no) n

• Russian: ору́жие (ru) n (orúžije)
• Swahili: vilaha (sw)

Verb

weapon (third-person singular simple present weapons, present participle weaponing, simple past and past participle weaponed)

1. (transitive) To equip with a weapon; to arm.
   • 1868, Henry Wilson, History of the Reconstruction Measures of the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses, 1865-68, page 425:

     […] the friends of the country and of the equal rights of all men, the friends of enfranchising the black man and of weaponing his hand for defense; the friends of taking the governments of these rebel States out of the hands of their rebel possessors, […]

Translations

Translations

• Bulgarian: въоръжавам (bg) (vǎorǎžavam)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: væpne

• Russian: вооружа́ть (ru) impf (vooružátʹ), вооружи́ть (ru) pf (vooružítʹ)

See also

weapon on Wikipedia.Wikipedia