A grenade is any explosive device designed to be thrown by hand. Grenade launchers are firearms designed to fire explosive projectile grenades. There are both grenade launchers that are integrated into other weapons (such as service rifles) and those that are built as individual weapon systems.
Famous quotes containing the word grenade:
“Good manners, Madam, are had these days not
For your asking, nor mine, nor what-we-used-to-be’s.
The day is a loud grenade that bursts a smile
Of serious weeds in a comic lily plot....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“Suddenly he found he had pressed the spring of the grenade. He struggled to pull it out of his pocket. It stuck in the narrow pocket. His arm and his cold fingers that clutched the grenade seemed paralyzed. Then a warm joy went through him. He had thrown it.
Anderson was standing up, swaying backwards and forwards. The explosion made the woods quake.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)