knife
Americannoun
-
knives
plural
-
an instrument for cutting, consisting essentially of a thin, sharp-edged, metal blade fitted with a handle.
-
a knifelike weapon; dagger or short sword.
-
any blade for cutting, as in a tool or machine.
verb (used with object)
-
knifes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
knifed,
past participle, past
-
knifing
present participle
-
to apply a knife to; cut, stab, etc., with a knife.
-
to attempt to defeat or undermine in a secret or underhanded way.
verb (used without object)
-
knifes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
knifed,
past participle, past
-
knifing
present participle
idioms
noun
-
a cutting instrument consisting of a sharp-edged often pointed blade of metal fitted into a handle or onto a machine
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a similar instrument used as a weapon
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to have a grudge against or victimize someone
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to make a bad situation worse in a deliberately malicious way
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people are determined to harm or put a stop to someone
the knives are out for Stevens
-
undergoing a surgical operation
verb
-
to cut, stab, or kill with a knife
-
to betray, injure, or depose in an underhand way
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
knifesimple
-
knifessimple
-
have knifedperfect
-
has knifedperfect
-
am knifingprogressive
-
are knifingprogressive
-
is knifingprogressive
-
have been knifingperfect progressive
-
has been knifingperfect progressive
Past
-
knifedsimple
-
had knifedperfect
-
was knifingprogressive
-
were knifingprogressive
-
had been knifingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of knife
before 1100; Middle English knif, Old English cnīf; cognate with Dutch knijf, German Kneif, Old Norse knīfr
Explanation
A knife is a sharp tool that's used for slicing or cutting. We suggest using a knife as a kitchen tool instead of as a weapon. A bread knife has a long, serrated edge, and the blade of a pocket knife folds into its handle so you can safely carry it in your pocket. Surgeons use very small knives to make delicate cuts during operations, and various kinds of knives are sometimes used as weapons. To knife, in fact, is to stab or cut with a knife, almost always in a violent way.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
I published one of the first R.E.M. fanzines, sitting at my kitchen table in my third-floor Hoboken tenement walkup with an X-Acto knife and a glue stick.
From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2026
In the future, once-proud musicians such as John “would only be footnotes in Chopin’s biography,” Ms. Li adds, twisting the knife.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
There’s been talk of bargain hunting and fears of catching a falling knife.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 3, 2026
Yes, this horrendous TV egg could only have hatched in a place like Hollywood, where mother-daughter spa days might also mean going under the knife.
From Salon ● Oct. 1, 2026
“I wanted to know, what if you tried to cut another of the same kind of knife with it? Which would cut which?”
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
In addition to screening, airports take inventory of knives in restaurants located after security, and careful decisions guide what planes may carry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
They refer to the "much-married" earl as getting out his "crested carving knives".
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
The knives were being sharpened on Maresca after a Community Shield humbling by Mikel Arteta's Gunners in August but City have responded in superb fashion with seven straight victories in all competitions.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
It was also uniquely hazardous because waste in dumpsters can include items such as knives, glass, needles, batteries and vermin, Menchaca said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
“He asked for one pound and I paid it. For sharpening all the knives, and a jolly good job he made of them. One pound. A penny more than one of your frozen Greenland pizzas.”
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
And then he retraced his steps across the 150-foot wide thoroughfare that knifes through the heart of the city along what once was the Red Car line of the Pacific Electric Railway.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2026
Speaking to broadcasters during a visit to Kilburn police station in north west London, Mr Sunak said there was "no reason" why such knifes should be on the streets.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2023
He spent nearly $600,000 on the rocking chair John F. Kennedy used in the White House, and another $550,000 for one of Abraham Lincoln’s pocket knifes.
From New York Times ● Dec. 9, 2022
Take Can a woman win the election: a sly, mean, ego-saving little canard that knifes both its subject and its verb in order to spare the real actor here.
From Slate ● Jan. 14, 2020
I hear the catch in his voice, and it knifes through me.
From "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson
Hunter knifed through the defense and broke for an 11-yard gain.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2025
An aching knee couldn’t slow Claude, either, as he knifed through the lane with ease Tuesday, exploding for 10 first-half points before dialing it back after halftime.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 11, 2025
Al-Shifa was the same hospital where Jihad had been born five months earlier — five months of searching all day for a little food, of nearly getting knifed over a little flour.
From New York Times ● Apr. 23, 2024
Evans knifed to the basket for a layup that gave capped a 9-0 run and gave Chicago its first double-digit lead at 30-19 early in the second quarter.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 22, 2023
Headlights knifed through the darkness, all turned toward the Fullers’ porch.
From "Out of Darkness" by Ashley Hope Pérez
Claude took that advice to heart, knifing through the lane and attacking the rim early and often.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 1, 2025
Van Lith, whose first basket came on a knifing drive for a layup with 1:43 left in the second quarter, had two jumpers blocked by Beal and three turnovers in the first half.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 1, 2022
Bolsonaro, 66, has been in the Sao Paulo hospital since Wednesday for treatment relating to an obstructed intestine following the 2018 knifing.
From Reuters ● Jul. 17, 2021
He scored 22 points and had seven assists in 19 minutes before halftime, knifing through the paint and juking Washington defenders as if on skates with his repaired Achilles’ tendon.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 15, 2021
In profile, with pumping thighs and knifing arms, we cut through the shin-whipping grass.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
