A large battleship, especially a heavily armored warship, or more generally, a person who is fearless and powerful.
Coined from 'dread' (fear) and 'nought' (nothing), literally meaning 'fears nothing.' The term became famous as the name of a revolutionary British battleship HMS Dreadnought launched in 1906, which transformed naval warfare with its all-big-gun design.
When HMS Dreadnought launched, it made every other battleship in the world instantly obsolete—countries panicked and spent billions trying to build their own dreadnoughts, which accelerated the naval arms race leading directly to World War I.
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