Bangalore torpedo

[ bang-guh-lawr tawr-pee-doh ]

noun

1. a metal tube filled with explosives and equipped with a firing mechanism, especially for destroying barbed-wire entanglements, mine fields, etc.

bangalore torpedo

noun

1. an explosive device in a long metal tube, used to blow gaps in barbed-wire barriers

Word History and Origins

Origin of Bangalore torpedo¹

First recorded in 1910–15

Word History and Origins

Origin of Bangalore torpedo¹

C20: named after Bangalore , where it was developed

Example Sentences

Red engineers blew a hole in the barbed wire with a bangalore torpedo.

From Time Magazine Archive

In the course of these raids, the honour of which was generously shared between all battalions in the Brigade, sometimes by means of the Bangalore Torpedo, sometimes by the easier and more subtle method of just walking into them, the enemy's front line was usually entered; and rarely did a raiding party return without the capture of at least an old bomb, an entrenching tool or even a live German.

From Project Gutenberg