Etymology

Verb

1. To throw, as a lance or dart; to hurl; to let fly; to take off.
2. To strike with, or as with, a lance; to pierce.

   • Launch your hearts with lamentable wounds. - Edmund Spenser

3. To cause to move or slide from the land into the water; to set afloat; as, to launch a ship.

   • With stays and cordage last he rigged the ship, And rolled on levers, launched her in the deep. - Alexander Pope

4. To send out; to start (one) on a career; to set going; to give a start to (something); to put in operation.

   launch a son in the world

   launch a business project or enterprise.

   • All art is used to sink episcopacy, and launch presbytery in England. - Eikon Basilike

5. To move with force and swiftness like a sliding from the stocks into the water; to plunge; to make a beginning; as, to launch into the current of a stream; to launch into an argument or discussion; to launch into lavish expenditures.

   • Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. - Luke 5:4

     He [Spenser] launches out into very flowery paths. - Matthew Prior

   • 1969, Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, ch. 23:

     My class was wearing butter-yellow pique dresses, and Momma launched out on mine. She smocked the yoke into tiny crisscrossing puckers, then shirred the rest of the bodice.

Noun

1. The act of launching.
2. The movement of a vessel from land into the water; especially, the sliding on ways from the stocks on which it is built. (Compare: to splash a ship.)
3. The boat of the largest size and/or of most importance belonging to a ship of war, and often called the "captain's boat" or "captain's launch".
4. A boat used to convey guests to and from a yaucht.
5. An open boat of any size powered by steam, naphtha, electricity, or the like. (Compare Spanish lancha.)