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plural javelins
A light spear thrown with the hand and used as a weapon. quotations examples
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 plague was stayed from the children of Israel.
1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 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, Act I, scene i, page 1
With what apprehensions we proceeded, ignorant at what moment we might be greeted by the javelin of some ambushed savage!
1846 February, Henry Melville, chapter X, in Typee […] : A Peep at Polynesian Life, London: John Murray, page 73
As a lion or wild boar turns fiercely on the dogs and men that attack him, while these form a solid wall and shower their javelins as they face him—his courage is all undaunted, but his high spirit will be the death of him; […]
1898, Homer, “Book XII”, in Samuel Butler, transl., The Iliad of Homer: Rendered into English Prose for the use of those who cannot read the original, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., page 189
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 stood
2023, Sufjan Stevens (lyrics and music), “Javelin (To Have and To Hold)”, in Javelin
A metal-tipped spear thrown for distance in an athletic field event. examples
third-person singular simple present javelins, present participle javelining, simple past and past participle javelined
(transitive) To pierce with a javelin. quotations examples
Furrowing a giant oak, and javelining With darted spikes and splinters of the wood
1859, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page)”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […]