Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harborname/ˌpɝ˞l ˈhɑɹbɚ/

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  A placename

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  governmentmilitarypoliticsA placename

  • Bluto: What? Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! Otter: [to Boon] Germans? Boon: Forget it, he's rolling.
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  historicalThe attack on Pearl Harbor.

  • Pearl Harbor happened in 1941 and was the direct cause of the United States' entry into World War II.
  • “Casablanca” was completed in 1942, but it’s set in December, 1941, the time of Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbornoun/ˌpɝ˞l ˈhɑɹbɚ/

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  A sneak attack, often using underhanded measures.

  • Most Americans wanted no more Pearl Harbors, but they now expected Germany to attempt one.
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  A seminal dramatic event that unites a community and arouses it into action against an enemy.

  • For all practical purposes, the United States is undergoing an electronic Pearl Harbor, and the target is one of the most crucial segments of our way of life: Information.
  • Still, instead of thinking in terms of the industry's repeated warnings of a "digital Pearl Harbor," McPherson said, "I think cyberwarfare will be far more subtle," in that "certain parts of the system won't work, or it will be that we can't trust information we're looking at."

Pearl Harborverb/ˌpɝ˞l ˈhɑɹbɚ/

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  slangTo attack by surprise; to subject to a sneak attack.

  • The first and second ships had been successfully Pearl Harbored. The third was not to be surprised. As we approached, she dropped her net and fled. We pursued.
  • Pearl Harbor had seared itself into the American consciousness, but even at the times of greatest tension American Presidents never believed that they were about to be Pearl Harbored again.
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  rareslangTo take rudely by surprise.

  • Of course, with the Soviets' launch of Sputnik, the Americans had been Pearl Harbored in space.
  • If I had quit two houses sooner than I did all would have been well but since I didn't, I got Pearl Harbored by some big kid dressed up in a Ben Cooper Howdy Doody plastic outfit and a goofily grinning mask […]

這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：

• Pearl Harbour