knife
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a few kitchen knives: chef's knife, bread knife, steak knife, and paring knife
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English knyf, knif, from late Old English cnīf, from Old Norse knífr, 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 coutel.
The verb knife is attested since the mid 1800s; the variant knive is attested since 1733.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /naɪf/
Audio (RP) (file) Audio (GA) (file) - Rhymes: -aɪf
Noun
knife (plural knives)
- 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.
- A weapon designed with the aforementioned specifications intended for slashing and/or stabbing and too short to be called a sword. A dagger.
- Any blade-like part in a tool or a machine designed for cutting, such as that of a chipper.
Hypernyms
Hyponyms
See also: knife § Types
- 007 knife
- air knife
- athame
- ballistic knife
- banana knife
- Barlow knife
- Batangas knife
- bayonet
- bistoury
- boning knife
- boot knife
- Bowie knife
- bowie knife
- bread knife
- bush knife
- butcher knife
- butchers' knife
- butcher's knife
- butterfly knife
- butter knife
- butterknife
- cane knife
- carpet knife
- carving knife
- case knife
- cheese knife
- chef's knife
- clasp-knife
- clasp knife
- clicking knife
- cook's knife
- craft knife
- dagger
- deer antler knife
- deer horn knife
- dirk
- dirk knife
- diving knife
- drawing knife
- drawknife
- eating knife
- electric carving knife
- electric knife
- Exacto knife
- falling knife
- fascine knife
- fish-knife
- fish knife
- fixie
- flick-knife
- flick knife
- folder
- folding knife
- gamma knife
- grapefruit knife
- gravity knife
- Gurkha knife
- hay knife
- herb knife
- hobby knife
- hunting knife
- jack-knife
- jack-knife barber
- Khyber knife
- kitchen knife
- knife-ear
- knife ear
- leather knife
- Lebsche knife
- linoleum knife
- machete
- marking knife
- molecular knife
- moon-knife
- neck knife
- oyster knife
- painting knife
- palette knife
- paper-knife
- paper knife
- paring knife
- penknife
- petty knife
- pocketknife
- pocket-knife
- pocket knife
- poniard
- putty knife
- race knife
- radio knife
- Rambo knife
- rasing-knife
- reed knife
- riving knife
- scalpel
- scalping knife
- sheath-knife
- sheath knife
- shucking knife
- snow knife
- squash knife
- Stanley knife
- steak knife
- stiletto
- survival knife
- sushi knife
- Swiss Army knife
- switchblade
- table knife
- tanto knife
- throwing knife
- tomato knife
- trench knife
- twist of the knife
- utility knife
- voiding knife
- waiter's knife
- white handled knife
- Yakutian knife
- zombie knife
Coordinate terms
- (tool or weapon for cutting): awl, cake slice, cake-slice, cutting tool, rapier, sword
Derived terms
Terms derived from knife (noun)
- before you can say knife
- bring a knife to a gunfight
- catch a falling knife
- cut like a knife
- falling knife
- hot-knife
- knife-and-fork
- knife block
- knife-boy
- knife-coloured
- knife control
- knifecraft
- knife crime
- knife edge
- knife-edge
- knife fight
- knifefish
- knife game
- knife money
- knife pleat
- knife rest
- knife-rest
- knife roll
- knifesmith
- knife switch
- knife thrower
- knife twister
- knife-twister
- like a hot knife through butter
- like a knife through butter
- not the sharpest knife in the drawer
- stick the knife in
- take a knife to a gunfight
- turn the knife
- turn the knife in the wound
- twist the knife
- twist the knife in the wound
- under the knife
- war to the knife
- you could cut the atmosphere with a knife
Descendants
Translations
utensil or tool designed for cutting
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weapon
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any blade-like part designed for cutting
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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See also
Verb
knife (third-person singular simple present knifes, present participle knifing, simple past and past participle knifed)
- (transitive) To cut with a knife.
- (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.
- (intransitive) To cut through as if with a knife.
- The boat knifed through the water.
- (transitive) To betray, especially in the context of a political slate.
- (transitive) To positively ignore, especially in order to denigrate; compare cut.
Translations
to use a knife to cut
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to use a knife to injure or kill
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to cut through as if with a knife
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
References
- ^ “knife”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
Anagrams
Middle English
Noun
knife
- Alternative form of knyf