knife

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English[edit]

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

Alternative forms[edit]

  • (noun): knyfe (obsolete)
    • (plural): knifes (nonstandard)
  • (verb): knive (uncommon)

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English knyf, knif, from late Old English cnīf, possibly from Old Norse knífr, from Proto-Germanic *knībaz, from *knīpaną (“to pinch”), Proto-Indo-European *gneybʰ- (compare Lithuanian gnýbti, žnýbti (“to pinch”), gnaibis (“pinching”)). Replaced Middle English sax (“knife”) from Old English seax; and Middle English coutel, qwetyll (“knife”) from Old French coutel.

The verb knife is attested since the mid 1800s;[1] the variant knive is attested since 1733.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

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 that of a chipper.

Hypernyms[edit]

Hyponyms[edit]

See also: knife § Types

Coordinate terms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from knife (noun)

Descendants[edit]

  • Sranan Tongo: nefi
  • → Portuguese: naifa
  • → Samoan: naifi

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See also[edit]

Verb[edit]

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.
    She was repeatedly knifed in the chest.
    • 1843, The Foreign Quarterly Review, volume 31, Treuttel and Würtz, Treuttel, Jun, and Richter, page 236:
      One day his sergeant began to cane him, on which, seizing his knife, he knifed the sergeant : he knifed the privates : he knifed until he was finally overpowered, and, brought before a court-martial, was condemned to fifteen years at the galleys.
    • 2012, Robert Biswas-Diener, The Courage Quotient: How Science Can Make You Braver, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 92:
      The plane has been hijacked. They've already knifed a guy.
    • 2015, Ross H. Spencer, The Fedorovich File, Diversion Books, →ISBN, page 211:
      Naw, they found him in the pissery of some gin mill near the Mohawk West terminal—he'd been knifed.
  3. (intransitive) To cut through as if with a knife.
    The boat knifed through the water.
  4. (transitive) To betray, especially in the context of a political slate.
  5. (transitive) To positively ignore, especially in order to denigrate; compare cut.

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

References[edit]

  1. ^ “knife”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams[edit]

Middle English[edit]

Noun[edit]

knife

  1. Alternative form of knyf
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