knife

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to: navigation, search

Contents

[edit] English

a few kitchen knives: chef's knife, bread knife, steak knife, and paring knife

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Etymology

Middle English knif, from late Old English cnīf, from Old Norse knífr (compare Danish/Swedish kniv), from Proto-Germanic *knībaz (compare Low German Knief, Luxembourgish Knäip ‘penknife’), from *knīpanan ‘to pinch’ (compare Dutch knijpen, Low German kniepen, Old High German gniffen), from Proto-Indo-European *gneibʰ- (compare Lithuanian gnýbti, žnýbti ‘to pinch’, gnaibis ‘pinching’). Replaced Middle English sexe.

[edit] Noun

knife (plural knives)

  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.
    • 2007, Scott Smith, The Ruins, page 273
      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 and/or stabbing and 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 the knives for a chipper.

[edit] Derived terms

Terms derived from knife (noun)

[edit] Translations

utensil or tool designed for cutting
weapon
any blade-like part designed for cutting
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

[edit] See also

[edit] Verb

knife (third-person singular simple present knifes, present participle knifing, simple past and past participle knifed)

  1. (transitive) To cut with a knife.
  2. (transitive) To use a knife to injure or kill by stabbing, slashing, or otherwise using the sharp edge of the knife as a weapon.
  3. (intransitive) To cut through as if with a knife.
  4. (transitive) To betray, especially in the context of a political slate.
  5. (transitive) To positively ignore, especially in order to denigrate. compare cut

[edit] Translations

to use a knife to cut
to use a knife to injure or kill
to cut through as if with a knife
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked
Retrieved from "http://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=knife&oldid=16167492"
Personal tools
Namespaces
Variants
Views
Actions
Navigation
Toolbox
In other languages