knife
Forms
- Plural
- knives
- present (v1)
- knife
- past (v2)
- knifed
- past participle (v3)
- knifed
- present participle
- knifing
- 3rd person singular
- knifes
Definitions
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.
- Before you put the knife away, please wipe it dry so that it will not rust.
3.Any blade-like part in a tool or a machine designed for cutting, such as that of a chipper.
- Before you put the knife away, please wipe it dry so that it will not rust.
1.To betray, especially in the context of a political slate.
2.To cut with a knife.
3.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.
- 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.
4.To cut through as if with a knife.
- The boat knifed through the water.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #2364
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Synonyms
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.