knife
nounverbcommon in dialogue
- United States//ˈnaɪ̯f//
- //ˈnɐɪ̯f//
- //ˈnɜɪ̯f//
- //ˈnʌɪ̯f//
A utensil or a tool designed for cutting, consisting of a flat piece of hard material, usually steel or other metal (the blade), usually sharpened on one edge, attached to a handle. The blade may be pointed for piercing.
noun
- 1
A utensil or a tool designed for cutting, consisting of a flat piece of hard material, usually steel or other metal (the blade), usually sharpened on one edge, attached to a handle. The blade may be pointed for piercing.
He was looking for a knife to chop some steak.
Jeff was bent low over the backboard, working with the knife, a steady sawing motion, his shirt soaked through with sweat.
- 2
A weapon designed with the aforementioned specifications intended for slashing or stabbing but too short to be called a sword; a dagger.
- 3
Any blade-like part in a tool or a machine designed for cutting, such as that of a chipper.
Etymology
From Middle English knyf, knif, from late Old English cnīf, from Old Norse knífr or Proto-West Germanic *knīb, from Proto-Germanic *knībaz, from *knīpaną (“to pinch”), Proto-Indo-European *gneybʰ- (compare Lithuanian gnýbti, žnýbti (“to pinch”), gnaibis (“pinching”)). Displaced native Middle English sax (“knife”), from Old English seax; and Middle English coutel, qwetyll (“knife”) from Old French coutel. * The verb is first attested in 1865. The variant knive is first attested in 1733. Cognates Cognate with Yola kunnife (“knife”), North Frisian knif (“knife”), Dutch knijf (“long pointy knife, poniard”), German Knifte (“rifle; thick slicebread”), German Low German Knief (“knife”), Luxembourgish Knäip (“paring knife”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk kniv (“knife”), Faroese knívur (“knife”), Icelandic hnífur, knífur (“knife”), Swedish knif, kniv (“knife”).
verb
- 1
To cut with a knife.
- 2
To use a knife to injure or kill by stabbing, slashing, or otherwise using the sharp edge of the knife as a weapon.
She was repeatedly knifed in the chest.
One day his sergeant began to cane him, on which, seizing his knife, he knifed the sergeant : he knifed the privates : he knifed until he was finally overpowered, and, brought before a court-martial, was condemned to fifteen years at the galleys.
The plane has been hijacked. They've already knifed a guy.
Naw, they found him in the pissery of some gin mill near the Mohawk West terminal—he'd been knifed.
- 3
To cut through as if with a knife.
The boat knifed through the water.
- 4
To betray, especially in the context of a political slate.
- 5
To positively ignore, especially in order to denigrate; compare cut.
Forms
- plural
- knives
- past tense
- knifed
- past participle
- knifed
- present participle
- knifing
- third person singular
- knifes
knife · A utensil or a tool designed for cutting, consisting of a flat piece of hard material, usually steel or other metal (the blade), usually sharpened on…
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