Word.ws English Dictionary

Pearl Harboring

Pearl Harboring is the present participle and gerund of Pearl Harbor.

Meaning of Pearl Harbor

Verb

Pearl Harbor (third-person singular simple present Pearl Harbors, present participle Pearl Harboring, simple past and past participle Pearl Harbored)

  1. (slang, often passive voice) To attack by surprise; to subject to a sneak attack.
    • The first and second ships had been successfully Pearl Harbored. The third was not to be surprised. As we approached, she dropped her net and fled. We pursued.2000, James P. Sterba, Earth Ethics: Introductory Readings on Animal Rights, page 345
  2. (often, passive, rare, slang) To take rudely by surprise.
    • Of course, with the Soviets' launch of Sputnik, the Americans had been Pearl Harbored in space.2001, Arthur C. Clarke, quoted in Stylistics: A Resource Book for Students (2004), page 143

See all 7 meanings of Pearl Harbor

Questions about Pearl Harboring

What is Pearl Harboring the present participle and gerund of?
Pearl Harboring is the present participle and gerund of Pearl Harbor.

Words near Pearl Harboring in the dictionary

  1. pearl gray
  2. pearl grey
  3. pearl greys
  4. Pearl Harbor
  5. Pearl Harbored
  6. Pearl Harboring
  7. Pearl Harbors
  8. Pearl Harbour
  9. pearl haricot bean
  10. pearl haricot beans
  11. pearl milk tea

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Pearl Harboring (page history and authors); Pearl Harbor (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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Cite this entry: “Pearl Harboring.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pearl_harboring. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.