at half-sword
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English[edit]
Adjective[edit]
at half-sword (not comparable)
- (archaic, rare) fighting a close fight, closer than a sword's length to one's opponents.
- c. 1623, William Shakespeare, The First Part of King Henry the Fourth:
- I am a rogue, if I were not at half-sword with a dozen of them two hours together. I have 'scaped by miracle. I am eight times thrust through the doublet, four through the hose; my buckler cut through and through; my sword hack'd like a hand-saw