Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Launch

Launch (länch), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Launched (läncht); p. pr. & vb. n. Launching.] [OE. launchen to throw as a lance, OF. lanchier, another form of lancier, F. lancer, fr. lance lance. See Lance.] [Written also lanch.] 1. To throw, as a lance or dart; to hurl; to let fly.

2. To strike with, or as with, a lance; to pierce. [Obs.]

Launch your hearts with lamentable wounds. Spenser.

3. To cause to move or slide from the land into the water; to set afloat; as, to launch a ship.

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

4. To send out; to start (one) on a career; to set going; to give a start to (something); to put in operation; as, to launch a son in the world; to launch a business project or enterprise.

All art is used to sink episcopacy, and launch presbytery in England. Eikon Basilike.

Launch, v. i. To move with force and swiftness like a sliding from the stocks into the water; to plunge; to make a beginning; as, to launch into the current of a stream; to launch into an argument or discussion; to launch into lavish expenditures; — often with out.

Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. Luke v. 4.

He [Spenser] launches out into very flowery paths. Prior.

Launch, n. 1. The act of launching.

2. The movement of a vessel from land into the water; especially, the sliding on ways from the stocks on which it is built.

3. [Cf. Sp. lancha.] (Naut.) The boat of the largest size belonging to a ship of war; also, an open boat of any size driven by steam, naphtha, electricity, or the like.

Launching ways. (Naut.) See Way, n. (Naut.).

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.