knive

Attested since at least 1733. Knife (verb), which is now 150 times more common, is first attested in the 1860s.^[1] Related to knife (“short blade”, noun); compare strife (noun), strive (verb).

• IPA^(key): /naɪv/^[2]
• Rhymes: -aɪv

knive (third-person singular simple present knives, present participle kniving, simple past and past participle knived)

1. Rare form of knife.
   • 1733, Practical Husbandman and Planter:

     all small weak Shoots should be cut close to the main Stems; and (generally speaking) nipping with your Nails, is a better Way than kniving of them.

   • 1917/1918, Wilfred Owen, “Exposure”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     Our brains always ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us.

   • 2009, Kathleen Mapes, Sweet Tyranny, →ISBN, page 161:

     The Greeks were always fighting, drunk, and kniving each other.

   • 2010, James Lee Burke, The Convict And Other Stories, →ISBN:

     I could feel my fingernails kniving into my palms.

   • 2014, Steve Ruedlinger, Almost Paradise, →ISBN, page 30:

     Great sheets of rain began kniving horizontally like slashing shards.

• Kevin

knive c

1. indefinite plural of kniv