TORPE'DO, noun [Latin from torpeo, to be numb.] The cramp fish or electric ray, Raia torpedo This fish is usually taken in forty fathoms water, on the coast of France and England, and in the Mediterranean. A touch of this fish occasions a numbness in the limb, accompanied with an indescribable and painful sensation, and is really an electric shock. When dead, the fish loses its power of producing this sensation.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI