Dictionaries › English

knife

Pronunciation: /ˈnaɪ̯f/

The English word “knife” has 8 meanings listed here.

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.
  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.

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.
  3. To cut through as if with a knife.
  4. To betray, especially in the context of a political slate.
  5. To positively ignore, especially in order to denigrate; compare cut.

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…

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “knife” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.