[f. prec. sb.]
† 1. trans. To benumb, deaden; = TORPEFY. Obs.
1771–2. Ess. fr. Batchelor (1773), I. 269. The faculties of that consummate orator … may be torpedoed by that wicked weed, before he has half delivered the following abstract of his sentiments.
2. To destroy or damage by means of a torpedo; to attack with a torpedo.
1879. in Webster, Suppl.
1881. P. Robinson, Under the Punkah, 221. If … an ironclad were to be run down, accidentally torpedoed, or suffer from an explosion.
1898. Westm. Gaz., April, 7/2. In action the battleship would have been torpedoed before she could have fired a gun.
b. fig. To paralyse, destroy: cf. to explode.
1895. Sir W. Harcourt, Sp. Ho. Comm., 18 Feb. The consummate speech … might be described as having torpedoed the amendment.
1899. Folk-Lore, March, 105. It seems effectually to have torpedoed the enemies’ arguments.
c. intr. To discharge torpedoes.
1896. Westm. Gaz., 15 Jan., 2/1. In four hours they’d be inside the Isle of Wight, torpedoing away right and left.
c. trans. To lay (a channel, etc.) with torpedoes or submarine mines; to defend with torpedoes.
1877. Daily News, 16 Nov., 5/7. The Russians are supposed to have immediately torpedoed the river in his front and rear.
1890. Sat. Rev., 11 Jan., 29/1. The canard that German officers have been torpedoing the Tagus.
3. To explode a ‘torpedo’ at the bottom of (an oil-well) to increase the output by shattering the rock or clearing the passage. Also intr. U.S.
1873. [see torpedoed below].
1883. Century Mag., July, 330/1. When a well fails it is usually ‘torpedoed’ to start the flow afresh. A long tin tube containing six or eight quarts of nitro-glycerine, is lowered into the hole and exploded by dropping a weight upon it. Ibid., 330/2. Sometimes well-owners ‘torpedo’ their wells … by night to avoid paying the … price charged by the company.
Hence Torpedoed ppl. a., Torpedoing vbl. sb.; Torpedoer, one who operates torpedoes.
1873. Howells, Chance Acquaint., vi. As if I were … an inflammable naiad from a torpedoed well.
1884. Pall Mall G., 1 Sept., 8/1. It may be said torpedoing is a game at which two can play.
1887. N. Y. Tribune, 5 June, 10/2. A really interesting person is Tickly-Bender, the torpedoer, one of those reckless fellows who are continually driving cartloads of dynamite though rough country roads or no roads, in the pursuit of their business of shooting reluctant oil-wells. The torpedoer is of course certain to be blown up eventually.
1903. Contemp. Rev., Aug., 186. Captain Sigsbee, formerly commander of the torpedoed ‘Maine.’
1905. Edin. Rev., Oct., 322. Our torpedoers, operating in the open sea, were at no small disadvantage.
