Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A knife or dagger; specifically, a long, straight double-edged weapon carried in the middle ages by persons not of the military class, as on journeys, or by foot-soldiers and attendants on a camp.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A knife; a dagger.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A knife; a dagger.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word couteau.

Examples

  • Ohé les tueurs, à la balle ou au couteau tuez vite!

    WWII soldiers remembrance 2009

  • Terms & Expressions: être dans le brouillard = to be in the dark (unaware) brouillard "à couper au couteau" (fog "to cut with a knife") = peasouper (or very thick fog)

    French Word-A-Day: 2008

  • Terms & Expressions: être dans le brouillard = to be in the dark (unaware) brouillard "à couper au couteau" (fog "to cut with a knife") = peasouper (or very thick fog)

    French Word-A-Day: 2008

  • Terms & Expressions: être dans le brouillard = to be in the dark (unaware) brouillard "à couper au couteau" (fog "to cut with a knife") = peasouper (or very thick fog)

    brouillard - French Word-A-Day 2008

  • Ohé les tueurs, à la balle ou au couteau tuez vite !

    WWII soldiers remembrance 2009

  • “And is he as ready with the gun as with the couteau?” said

    The Bride of Lammermoor 2008

  • Oui, prenez un couteau, retirez-en la lame et le manche, il vous reste le concept.

    Pro-Israel Tunisian Gets Bloggers Buzzing 2008

  • His walking boots were of cordovan leather; his cloak of good Scottish grey, which served to conceal a whinger, or couteau de chasse, that hung at his belt, and was his only offensive weapon, for he carried in his hand but a rod of holly.

    The Fair Maid of Perth 2008

  • I jumped out of the carriage, pitched fraternity to the devil, and, betwixt desperation and something very like shame, began to cut away with a couteau de chasse, which I had provided in case of necessity. —

    Saint Ronan's Well 2008

  • This was crossed by another shoulder belt, to which was hung a hunting knife, or couteau de chasse.

    Quentin Durward 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Knife.

    December 19, 2007

  • "...when they pretended to fasten him on his back he grew outrageous, and drawing a large couteau from his side-pocket, threatened to rip up the belly of the first man that should approach him..."

    - Smollett, Roderick Random, 1748

    May 23, 2014