English
launch
Pronunciation
  • (British) enPR: lônch, IPA: /lɔːnt͡ʃ/
    • (some accents) enPR: länch, IPA: /lɑːnt͡ʃ/
  • (America) enPR: lônch, IPA: /lɔnt͡ʃ/, [lɒnt͡ʃ]
    • (cot-caught) IPA: /lɑnt͡ʃ/
Etymology 1

From Middle English launchen, Old French lanchier, another form (fro-nor -/Norman variant, compare Jèrriais lanchi) of lancier, French lancer, from lance.

Verb

launch (launches, present participle launching; simple past and past participle launched)

  1. (transitive) To throw (a projectile such as a lance, dart or ball); to hurl; to 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 […]
  2. (transitive, obsolete) To pierce with, or as with, a lance.
    Synonyms: lance, pierce
    • 1591, Edmund Spenser, The Teares of the Muses:
      And launch your hearts with lamentable wounds.
  3. (transitive) To cause (a vessel) to move or slide from the land or a larger vessel into the water; to set afloat.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Luke 5:4 ↗:
      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.
    The navy launched another ship.
  4. (transitive) To cause (a rocket, balloon, etc., or the payload thereof) to begin its flight upward from the ground.
    • 1978, Farooq Hussain, “Volksraketen for the Third World”, in New Scientist:
      A cheap rocket that could launch military reconnaisance satellites for developing countries has become involved in a tangled web of Nazi rocket scientists, Penthouse magazine, KGB disinformation, and a treaty reminiscent of the height of colonialism in Africa.
    NASA launched several unmanned rockets before launching any of the Mercury astronauts.
  5. (transitive) To send out; to start (someone) on a mission or project; to give a start to (something); to put in operation
    Our business launched a new project.
    • 1649, Eikon Basilike:
      All art is uſed to ſink Epiſcopacy, & lanch Presbytery in England.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:
      Here was my chance. I took the old man aside, and two or three glasses of Old Crow launched him into reminiscence.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:
      “ […] 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.
  6. (transitive, computing) To start (a program or feature); to execute or bring into operation.
    Double-click an icon to launch the associated application.
  7. (transitive) To release; to put onto the market for sale
  8. (intransitive) Of a ship, rocket, balloon, etc.: to depart on a voyage; to take off.
  9. (intransitive, often with out) To move with force and swiftness like a sliding from the stocks into the water; to plunge; to begin.
    • 1718, Matthew Prior, Solomon: On the Vanity of the World, Preface:
      In our language, Spenſer has not contented himſelf with this ſubmiſſive manner of imitation : he launches out into very flowery paths […]
    • 1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 23, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings:
      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.
    to launch into an argument or discussion
    to launch into lavish expenditures
  10. (intransitive, computing, of a program) To start to operate.
    After clicking the icon, the application will launch.
Translations Translations
  • Portuguese: lancear
  • Spanish: lancear
Translations Translations Translations Noun

launch (plural launches)

  1. The movement of a vessel from land into the water; especially, the sliding on ways from the stocks on which it is built. (Compare: to splash a ship.)
  2. The act or fact of launching (a ship/vessel, a project, a new book, etc.).
  3. An event held to celebrate the launch of a ship/vessel, project, a new book, etc.; a launch party.
    product launch
    book launch
Related terms
  • launching ways
Translations Translations Etymology 2

From Portuguese lancha, apparently from Malay lancar.

Noun

launch (plural launches)

  1. (nautical) The boat of the largest size and/or of most importance belonging to a ship of war, and often called the "captain's boat" or "captain's launch".
  2. (nautical) A boat used to convey guests to and from a yacht.
  3. (nautical) An open boat of any size powered by steam, petrol, electricity, etc.
Translations Translations Translations

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