dagger

[dag-er] /ˈdæg ər/
noun
1.
a short, swordlike weapon with a pointed blade and a handle, used for stabbing.
2.
Also called obelisk. Printing. a mark (†) used especially for references.
verb (used with object)
3.
to stab with or as if with a dagger.
4.
Printing. to mark with a dagger.
Idioms
5.
look daggers at, to look at angrily, threateningly, or with hate.
Origin
1350-1400; Middle English, probably alteration of Old French dague, of obscure origin; cf. dag1
Examples from the web for dagger
  • The second stage was reached when the flint-lock rifle came on the scene and took the place of knife and dagger.
  • Your plastic knife in the plane will cut through a lot of things and when broken might be as sharp as a dagger.
  • Academics are famous for sliding the dagger in your back and then going to lunch with you.
  • They do it to soften them up, and they'll put the dagger in.
  • Two wounds to his right hand and wrist show he was stabbed while trying to defend himself with a dagger against an attacker.
  • Near the feet, two chunks of birch fungus on leather straps were recovered, along with a flint-bladed dagger and shoes.
  • Twenty-foot-long upright meat eater with an armored snout for ramming and three sets of dagger-shaped fangs for slicing.
  • They weigh up to a ton or more and have dagger-type tusks in font of their face.
  • At first she closed her eyes, missing the vital spinal gap where her dagger had to fall.
  • Some of the matches were uncanny-the dagger that had to be twisted on the way out, the beak of a war hammer.
British Dictionary definitions for dagger

dagger

/ˈdæɡə/
noun
1.
a short stabbing weapon with a pointed blade
2.
Also called obelisk. a character (†) used in printing to indicate a cross reference, esp to a footnote
3.
at daggers drawn, in a state of open hostility
4.
look daggers, to glare with hostility; scowl
verb (transitive)
5.
to mark with a dagger
6.
(archaic) to stab with a dagger
Word Origin
C14: of uncertain origin
Word Origin and History for dagger
n.

late 14c., apparently from Old French dague "dagger," from Old Provençal dague or Italian daga, of uncertain origin; perhaps Celtic, perhaps from Vulgar Latin *daca "Dacian knife," from the Roman province in modern Romania. The ending is possibly the faintly pejorative -ard suffix. Attested earlier (1279) as a surname (Dagard, presumably "one who carried a dagger"). Middle Dutch dagge, Danish daggert, German Degen also are from French.

Slang definitions & phrases for dagger

dagger

Related Terms

bulldyke


Idioms and Phrases with dagger

dagger

In addition to the idiom beginning with daggers also see: look daggers
Encyclopedia Article for dagger

short stabbing knife, ostensibly the diminutive of the sword, though in ancient and medieval times the distinction between a long dagger and a short sword was often obscure. From approximately 1300 the European dagger was consistently differentiated from the sword; in the 16th century a school of fencing developed in which a specially designed dagger with a large guard was held in the left hand and used for parrying.

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