clasp-knife

See also: clasp knife

English

Clasp-Knife, Spanish, 19th century
About 25 cm long when folded

Three-bladed utility clasp-knife. 20th century

Alternative forms

• clasp knife

Noun

clasp-knife (plural clasp-knives)

1. A knife with a hinged blade or blades that, for safety when not in use, can be folded into a slot in the handle.
   • 1859, Journal of the British Archaeological Association‎^[1]:

     ...there is yet ample evidence of the existence of clasp-knives ages before the production of the Canterbury Tales. Among Etruscan antiquities in the Bronze Room of the British Museum are several clasp-knives, some of them with bone, others with bronze hafts, their blades being of iron — a metal employed for cutting implements by the Tyrrhenian tribes, at a far remote era.
     A scalprum or penknife has been found in Rome, the blade shutting into a bone haft, which is carved to represent the upper half of a human body; and clasp-knives, with iconic handles of the Roman era, have been discovered both in France and this country.

   • 1886, R.M. Ballantyne, Red Rooney:

     “Well, this knife is called a clasp-knife, because it shuts and opens, as you see, and it has three blades — a big one for cuttin’ up your victuals with, as you see me doin’; and two little ones for parin’ your nails and pickin’ your teeth, an’ mendin’ pens an’ pencils — though of course you don’t know what that means.”

   • 1945, Tom Ronan, Strangers on the Ophir, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 110:

     Blake picked his teeth reflectively with the point of a clasp knife.

Synonyms

• folding knife, folder

Coordinate terms

• sheath knife

Related terms

• penknife, pocket-knife

Translations

A knife that can be folded into a slot in the handle.

• Arabic: مِطْواة f (miṭwāh)
• Bulgarian: сгъваем нож m (sgǎvaem nož)
• Czech: zavírák m, zavírací nůž m
• French: canif (fr) m
• German: Klappmesser (de) n
• Ottoman Turkish: چاقی (çakı)
• Slovák: krivák m, zatvárací nôž m