From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcatapultcat‧a‧pult1 /ˈkætəpʌlt/ noun [countable] 1 PMWa large weapon used in former times to throw heavy stones, iron balls etc2 DHT British English a small stick in the shape of a Y with a thin rubber band fastened over the two ends, used by children to throw stones SYN slingshot American English3 TTAa piece of equipment used to send an aircraft into the air from a ship
Examples from the Corpus
catapult• The Defence budget would stand buying another catapult tomorrow; my crossbow would just have to wait another week or so.• Once deployed, the Hot Pot catapult can not be moved.• After collecting all kinds of material the catapult began to take shape.• While working on the catapult Endill started to keep a diary.• To help you remember it is a good idea to turn the catapult round so it faces away from the enemy.• He unscrewed the catapult piece by piece feeling depressed.• This would show how well the catapult worked and if they had to make any adjustments in their aim.• The catapult breaks throwing boiling Hot Pot gloop everywhere.catapultcatapult2 verb 1 [transitive always + adverb/preposition]THROW to push or throw something very hard so that it moves through the air very quickly Sam was catapulted into the air by the force of the blast.2 → catapult somebody to fame/stardom etc→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
catapult• Challenges can catapult a child into new maturity.• Divorce or the death of a husband is enough to catapult a middle-class white woman and her children into poverty.• The Mafia was catapulted from the shadows.• Charsky catapulted into a rocky obstruction after tumbling a thousand feet or so.• Some were catapulted out of smashed windows, while others were trapped and had to be cut free.• A simple computerized library book checkout system has catapulted the number of checked-out books each day to 600.Origin catapult1 (1500-1600) Latin catapulta, from Greek katapaltes, from kata- ( → CATACLYSM) + pallein “to throw strongly” 