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Definition of depth charge
: an antisubmarine weapon that consists essentially of a drum filled with explosives which is dropped near a target and descends to a predetermined depth where it explodes
— called also depth bomb
Examples of depth charge in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web Each side took turns maneuvering, escort ships dropping depth charges and U-boats dodging under the surface.
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Dallas News, "How a British officer and a team of young women outsmarted Nazi Germany’s U-boats," 4 Feb. 2020 Rather than splay out from the convoy at speed, dropping depth charges at random, as was current common practice, Laidlaw and Okell lined the escort ships up around the convoy.
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Simon Parkin, Time, "A Nazi U-Boat Tactic Stumped Allied Forces — Until a Retired British Naval Officer Designed a Game to Reveal How It Worked," 29 Jan. 2020 The Bullhead was likely the victim of depth charges dropped by a Japanese plane.
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Meg Jones, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "If you didn't know Wisconsinites killed in battle, read these stories of veterans whose lives were cut short," 11 Nov. 2019 Nobody went anywhere near it because of the depth charges.
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J.d. Crowe | Jdcrowe@al.com, al, "Alabama’s homeless veterans: Army vet trades his bike for a bench," 3 Aug. 2019 Still left to remove are the Evolved Sea Sparrow surface-to-air missiles, anti-submarine depth charges, and 76-millimeter cannon shells.
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Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "Watch Underwater Footage from Helge Ingstad—Norway’s Newest Submarine," 19 Dec. 2018 That's where destroyers newly equipped with depth charges will come in, the company said.
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Gordon Mah Ung, PCWorld, "World of Warships dives deep for new players, adding submarines to popular naval combat game," 18 Sep. 2018 The show’s inescapable power comes from the emotionalism of great music, and in the current production every bit of its depth charge sounds.
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Corby Kummer, The Atlantic, "How Do Carousel and My Fair Lady Fare in 2018?," 8 July 2018 The Poseidon can track ships and submarines across vast areas of ocean, deploying missiles, depth charges and torpedoes from a rotary launcher to sink them if necessary.
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Rob Taylor, WSJ, "New Zealand Buys Boeing Surveillance Jets to Counter Chinese Buildup," 9 July 2018
See MoreThese example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'depth charge.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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Time Traveler for depth charge
The first known use of depth charge was in 1917
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