DictionaryAI

launch

SayLAWNCH/lɔnt͡ʃ/UK/lɔːnt͡ʃ/

Verblaunches, launching, launched

Noun plurallaunches

12 meanings of launch

Practice

  1. 1
    begin a projectverbtransitive
    To set something in motion, such as a mission, project, or initiative, or to start someone on it.

    The mayor plans to launch an effort to reduce downtown traffic.

    The nonprofit launched a fundraising drive over the weekend.

    UsageCommon with planned efforts: launch a campaign, launch an investigation, launch an attack.

    Similarstart (entry), begin, initiate, mount, inaugurate

    Oppositeend

  2. 2
    release a productverbtransitive
    To release a new product and make it available to the public, usually for sale.

    The startup plans to launch its app in several countries at once.

    Publishers launched the new edition just before the holidays.

    Similarrelease, introduce, unveil, debut

    Oppositewithdraw, discontinue

  3. 3
    nouncountable
    The act or occasion of launching something, such as sending a ship into the water, a rocket into space, or a new product, book, or project to the public, often marked by a special event.

    The product launch attracted a lot of media attention.

    The company timed the launch to coincide with the holidays.

    UsageOften next to other nouns: product launch, launch date, launch party, and the launch of a book or rocket.

  4. 4
    lift offverbtransitive
    To send a rocket, balloon, or its payload into flight.

    The agency plans to launch a communications satellite next month.

    Technicians launched the probe on a path toward Mars.

  5. 5
    verbtransitive
    To move a vessel from land or a larger ship into the water and set it afloat.

    The shipyard will launch the freighter once repairs are finished.

    Sailors launched the lifeboat from the side of the ship.

  6. 6
    run (computer)verbtransitive or intransitive
    To start a computer program or app so that it begins running, or (of a program) to start running.

    Double-click the file to launch the photo editor.

    The system launches the backup tool automatically each night.

    UsageWorks like open: you launch an app, or the app launches by itself, with no object.

    Note

    Computing uses the word for the moment software is set going: a user launches an application, typically by double-clicking its icon. It sits beside start and open, and like them it names the act that begins the program rather than the program's running.

  7. 7
    throw hardverbtransitive
    To hurl or propel a projectile with force.

    The catapult can launch a heavy stone right over the wall.

    He launched the javelin farther than anyone expected.

    Similarhurl, throw, fling, cast, pitch

    Note

    Many later meanings keep the motion of the throw. The object can be a single missile or a whole volley, as when warriors launched a volley of stones and spears.

  8. 8
    verbintransitive
    To move forward with sudden force and speed; to plunge or begin energetically.

    The dancers launch into the routine without a moment's hesitation.

    He launched into a long speech about his travels.

    UsageUsually launch into + the thing begun (launch into a long speech) or launch out; for sudden movement, launch forward.

    Similarplunge, dive, leap, jump

    Note

    Matthew Prior, in the preface to his Solomon, has Spenser launching out "into very flowery paths," and Maya Angelou writes that Momma "launched out on" her dress, smocking the yoke into tiny puckers.

  9. 9
    verbintransitive
    Of a ship, rocket, or balloon itself, to set off on a voyage or leave the ground and rise into the air.

    The spacecraft will launch from the coastal pad before noon.

    The balloons launched into a clear morning sky.

    Similardepart

    Oppositeland

Less common meanings

  1. 10
    small boatnouncountable
    An open boat of any size driven by steam, gasoline, electricity or another power source, including one that carries guests to and from a yacht.

    The harbor launch ferried workers out to the dredger each morning.

    An electric launch glided quietly along the narrow canal.

    Note

    The everyday modern launch is defined by its engine, whether steam, gasoline or electric, and size does not matter. Because power rather than a parent ship defines it, a harbor or canal launch needs no mother vessel at all. Boats driven by oars or sail fall outside this sense, though older warships' launches were rowed or sailed.

    Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

  2. 11
    verbobsoletetransitive
    To pierce with a lance, or as if with one.
    And launch your hearts with lamentable wounds.
    1591, Edmund Spenser, The Teares of the Muses

    Similarpierce, lance

    Note

    Here the lance pierces instead of flying. Spenser could write in 1591, "And launch your hearts with lamentable wounds." The sense shares the lance origin of the throwing sense but is long obsolete, and the verb lance now does this work. Read it in Elizabethan verse without using it yourself: a modern reader will hear propulsion, not piercing.

    Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Launch has an obsolete sense meaning to pierce with, or as with, a lance. en.wiktionary.org
    • Spenser wrote the quoted line in The Teares of the Muses; the poem's speaker here is Erato. en.wikisource.org
    • The poem containing the quotation was first published in 1591. celm.folger.edu
    • The piercing and throwing senses share the same lance-related origin. en.wiktionary.org
  3. 12
    noun
    The largest or most important boat belonging to a warship, often called the captain's launch.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of launch apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1–9, 11

From Middle English launchen, meaning 'to throw as a lance', from Old French lanchier, a Norman variant of lancier (modern French lancer), which comes from lance.

Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

  • Launch derives from Middle English launchen, which could mean to propel or throw as a lance. en.wiktionary.org
  • The Old French source lanchier is a Norman variant of lancier. en.wiktionary.org
  • The corresponding modern French form is lancer, ultimately derived from lance. en.wiktionary.org
Meaning 10

Portuguese lancha ('barge, launch') is the source, and it seemingly goes back to Malay lancar ('quick, agile'); the English spelling was shaped by the verb launch meaning 'to throw'.