javelin
/ˈd͡ʒæv.(ə.)lɪn/
javelin noun: a light spear thrown with the hand and used as a weapon.
Noun
javelin (plural javelins)
- A light spear thrown with the hand and used as a weapon.
- And when Phinehas the sonne of Eleazar, the sonne of Aaron the Priest saw it, hee rose vp from amongst the Congregation, and tooke a iauelin in his hand. And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them thorow, the man of Israel, and the woman, thorow her belly: So the...1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Numbers 25:7–8
- Flies the javelin swifter to its mark, / Launched by the vigour of a Roman arm?1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene iv, page 9
- A metal-tipped spear thrown for distance in an athletic field event.
- I managed to medal in the javelin throw.
- A javelinfish (Coelorinchus australis).
Verb
javelin (third-person singular simple present javelins, present participle javelining or javelinning, simple past and past participle javelined or javelinned)
- To pierce with a javelin.
- Furrowing a giant oak, and javelining / With darted spikes and splinters of the wood1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Vivien”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 142
- Eventually ostriches arrived and with arrows I shot them in the burning arena with arrows tipped with small bronze crescents Saw flies buzz at the array of javelinned lions Saw the looks on faces crookedly aghast when before them I hoisted a hacked off ostrich head and wagged my own and grinned1985, Christopher Middleton, “Commodus”, in Selected Writings, Manchester: Carcanet Press, published 1989, →ISBN, section 4 (From Serpentine (1985)), page 145
- To throw like a javelin.
- He will have questions of all sorts javelined at him from the benches on both sides, from above the gangway and from below it.1926, “The Exchequer”, in Aids to the Study of European Governments: Brief Readings, Reprints of Constitutions, Chronologies, Diagrams, Questions, and Topics for Special Study (with References)...
- There is a thing no man may name; / It comes like beauty, goes like flame. / It haunts dim labyrinths of time / And enters every poet’s rhyme. / Its cry is heard upon the wind / When it is high and javelinned, / And on still nights its steps are heard, / Soft as the footfalls of a bird.1938 May 4, W. E. Bard, “The Unknown”, in The Atlanta Journal, volume LVI, number 70, Atlanta, Ga., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 6, column 3
- To fall like a javelin.
- For answer the ship righted as she rolled upon another great swell, leaned as far the other side, and crashed, bows first, into a cleft rock under water which held her as in a vise while her jib boom flew up in splinters, and her foretopgallant and royal mast, with yards and gear and sails, tore...1922 October 7, Captain [Aylward Edward] Dingle, “Ocean Magic”, in The Saturday Evening Post, volume 195, number 15, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 72
- The ants broke loose and attacked. In an attempt to beat them off, Ejeka lost grip of his whip which javelinned earthward.1967, Clement Agunwa, “Performing a Duty Unassigned”, in More Than Once: A Novel, London: Longmans, →OCLC, page 68
javelin meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
javelin in Tamil
- எறி மெல்லீட்டு, எறிவேல், பல்லம்
javelin in Urdu
- spear used in athletic competition
- نیزَہ neza
- spear used as a weapon
- نیزَہ neza
javelin in Bengali
- বর্শা, নিক্ষেপণযোগ্য হালকা বর্শা
javelin in Malayalam
- spear used in athletic competition
- ജാവലിൻ jāvaliṉ
More languagesFewer languages
- javelin in Kannada
- ಎಸೆಯೀಟಿ
- javelin in Punjabi
- ਭਾਲਾ bhālā
- javelin in Sanskrit
- शल्य śalya
- javelin in Tagalog
- balibabat, habalina
- javelin in Arabic
- مِزْرَاق mizrāq
- javelin in Malay
- lembing
- javelin in Indonesian
- lembing
- javelin in Persian
- نیزه neyze, زوبین zubin, خشت xešt, سل sel
- javelin in Thai
- หลาว lǎao, แหลน hlɛ̌ɛn
Examples of javelin in a sentence
- With what apprehensions we proceeded, ignorant at what moment we might be greeted by the javelin of some ambushed savage!1846 February 26, Herman Melville, chapter X, in Narrative of a Four Months’ Residence among the Natives of a Valley of the Marquesas...
- Searching through snow / For the javelin I had not / Meant to throw right at you / For if it had hit its mark / There’d be blood in the place / Where you stood2023, Sufjan Stevens, “Javelin (To Have and To Hold)”, in Javelin:
- An 8-foot 2-by-4 was javelinned through my bedroom wall; its blunt end stared at me just three feet short of my bed.1998 August 16, Marjorie Daniel, “Essay: Nature’s Broom”, in The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Oh., →ISSN, →OCLC, “Sunday Magazine” section...
- At the thought of doing so, she javelinned the mop handle onto the floor, the speed and violence of which action, afterward, made her feel deranged.2022, Jem Calder, “Serenity Prayer”, in Reward System, London: Faber & Faber, →ISBN, “A Restaurant Somewhere Else” section:
Forms of javelin
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | javelins |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | javelins |
| present participle | javelining |
| present participle | javelinning |
| past participle | javelined |
| past | javelined |
| past participle | javelinned |
| past | javelinned |
Origin of javelin
From Middle English chafeveleyn, gavelong, from Old French javelline, diminutive of javelot, diminutive of *javel, from Vulgar Latin *gabalus, from Gaulish gabulum (compare Old Irish gabul (“fork”), Welsh gafl), from Proto-Celtic *gablā (“fork, forked branch”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeh₁bʰ-. The Old French term was also borrowed into Middle Low German as gaveline, and into Middle High German as gabilot. Cognate with gavelock, gaffle.
Words formed from javelin
Phrases with javelin
Questions about javelin
- What does javelin mean?
- Javelin means a light spear thrown with the hand and used as a weapon.
- What is javelin in Tamil?
- Javelin in Tamil is எறி மெல்லீட்டு, எறிவேல், பல்லம். See Javelin meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use javelin in a sentence?
- With what apprehensions we proceeded, ignorant at what moment we might be greeted by the javelin of some ambushed savage!
- What part of speech is javelin?
- Javelin can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce javelin?
- Javelin is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒæv.(ə.)lɪn/.
- What is the plural of javelin?
- The plural of javelin is javelins.
Words near javelin in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: javelin (page history and authors); javelin (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Javelin (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); javelin (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਭਾਲਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-javelin.wav.
Cite this entry: “javelin.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/javelin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.