as in stabs
to penetrate or hold (something) with a pointed object
she deftly harpooned a shrimp with her skewer and held it over the fire
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for harpoons
Verb
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Milo tries to be a hero, trying to use pepper spray on Morgan, but Morgan stabs and kills him.—
Barry Levitt,
Time,
21 Jan. 2026 -
Percy, now carrying the Golden Fleece, runs toward the elevator, but Luke stabs him through the closing doors.—
Monica Mercuri,
Forbes.com,
20 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Using tools only of stone, bone, and shell, Islanders made wooden spears and clubs, and canoes built from planks stitched together with plant fibers and fitted with outriggers.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
28 Jan. 2026
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Other examples of ancient wooden tools include a set of spears from Germany and 300,000-year-old Chinese digging sticks that may have been used to harvest plants.—
Adithi Ramakrishnan,
Los Angeles Times,
27 Jan. 2026
Verb
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But Anderson punctures his weed haze with the bright light of a past that in actuality never dimmed, when Lockjaw begins to hunt Pat and Willa.—
Angelica Jade Bastién,
Vulture,
24 Nov. 2025
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Recounting his visit with Shelton’s body after she’d been taken off of life support in From Bleak to Dark, Maron punctures the somber scene with a joke about taking a selfie.—
Mikey O'Connell,
HollywoodReporter,
13 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Srinivas, who often jabs the search engine giant, made an interesting point.—
Reed Albergotti,
semafor.com,
3 Oct. 2025
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Haggard jabs Baird over mailers The race is already tense.—
Kayla Dwyer,
IndyStar,
13 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Warhorses charge, lances down, crashing through the tilts as lances break on shields and men topple from their steeds.—
Erik Kain,
Forbes.com,
26 Jan. 2026
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Three or four decades ago, the newspaperman was appealingly raffish—at once a bum who drank too much and a knight-errant who charged unafraid at social injustice, succored the weak, and crossed lances with the powerful and arrogant.—
David Wingrave,
Harpers Magazine,
24 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Nothing that pierces the skin should ever be used as leverage over a child's opportunity to education and to learn.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
12 Dec. 2025
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Nicole Kidman's stare pierces the room.—
Jennifer Brett,
Nashville Tennessean,
16 Nov. 2025
Noun
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Hoosiers can hunt frogs with bow and arrows, clubs, some firearms, or simply, their hands, but Plumier teaches those gathered at Goose Pond how to use gigs — long, multi-pronged spears that look a little bit like tridents.—
Sophie Hartley,
IndyStar,
9 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Barb appears, and sticks the device in Hank’s neck, pulling out the fusion chip.—
Jack King,
Vulture,
21 Jan. 2026
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Sir Jimmy sticks a knife in Kelson, which turns out to be a mortal wound, but Spike and Kelly (Erin Kellyman) – aka Jimmy Ink – attack Sir Jimmy.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
17 Jan. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Harpoons.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/harpoons. Accessed 1 Feb. 2026.
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