taser

Trademark.

1. Often TASER. a brand name for a gunlike device that uses propelled wires or direct contact to electrically stun and incapacitate a person temporarily.

noun

1. trademark a weapon that fires electrical probes that give an electric shock, causing temporary paralysis

verb

2. (tr) to stun (someone) with a taser

n.1972, formed from the initials of Tom Swift’s electric rifle, a fictitious weapon. A powerful word that threatens to escape the cage of its copyright, despite the strenuous efforts of the owners, who are within their rights to fight to hold it. They also insist, via their attorneys, that it be written all in capitals. A key the executive washroom is not a license to dictate language, at least not in English. It seems to have spawned a verb, taze.