launch

1. (v) (transitive) To send out; to start (someone) on a mission or project; to give a start to (something); to put in operation 2. (v) (transitive) To release; to put onto the market for sale 3. (v) (transitive) To cause (a rocket, balloon, etc., or the payload thereof) to begin its flight upward from the ground. 4. (v) (transitive, computing) To start (a program or feature); to execute or bring into operation. 5. (n) The act or fact of launching (a ship/vessel, a project, a new book, etc.). 6. (n) An event held to celebrate the launch of a ship/vessel, project, a new book, etc.; a launch party. 7. (v) (transitive) To throw (a projectile such as a lance, dart or ball); to hurl; to propel with force. 8. (v) (transitive) To cause (a vessel) to move or slide from the land or a larger vessel into the water; to set afloat. 9. (v) (intransitive) Of a ship, rocket, balloon, etc.: to depart on a voyage; to take off. 10. (v) (intransitive, often with out) To move with force and swiftness like a sliding from the stocks into the water; to plunge; to begin. 11. (v) (intransitive, computing, of a program) To start to operate. 12. (n) 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.) 13. (n) (nautical) 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". 14. (n) (nautical) A boat used to convey guests to and from a yacht. 15. (n) (nautical) An open boat of any size powered by steam, petrol, electricity, etc. 16. (v) (transitive, obsolete) To pierce with, or as with, a lance.