bayonet

[ bey-uh-nit, -net, bey-uh-net ]

noun

1. a daggerlike steel weapon that is attached to or at the muzzle of a gun and used for stabbing or slashing in hand-to-hand combat.
2. a pin projecting from the side of an object, as the base of a flashbulb or camera lens, for securing the object in a bayonet socket.

verb (used with object)

, bay·o·net·ed or bay·o·net·ted, bay·o·net·ing or bay·o·net·ting.

1. to kill or wound with a bayonet.

bayonet

/ ˈbeɪənɪt /

noun

1. a blade that can be attached to the muzzle of a rifle for stabbing in close combat
2. a type of fastening in which a cylindrical member is inserted into a socket against spring pressure and turned so that pins on its side engage in slots in the socket

verb

1. tr to stab or kill with a bayonet

Word History and Origins

Origin of bayonet¹

1605–15; < French baïonnette, after Bayonne in France (where the weapon was first made or used); -ette

Word History and Origins

Origin of bayonet¹

C17: from French baïonnette , from Bayonne where it originated

Example Sentences

If the training were realistic, our high school boys would be instructed in how to twist a bayonet in another boy’s body, how to wear gas masks, how to throw grenades, how to battle cooties and rats and spend hours in mud in trenches.

From Popular-Science

He charged that the central government was attempting to “rewrite all law” and preparing to force integration on the state with “troops and bayonets,” as they had done in Mississippi, and he pledged never to submit voluntarily.

From Time

He received the Silver Star for his actions in Velletri, where he repelled an enemy attack with his machine-gun section, and once traversed a minefield with his fellow soldiers by forcing sheep through first at bayonet point.

From Washington Post

The point of the bayonet emerges through the left side of his chest, exactly where his heart is.

From Time

Thirty-two feet high, standing on a granite plinth, is a bronze statue of a bound-and-gagged soldier being stabbed through the back with a bayonet.

From Time

This prompts Sarah Lynn to stab herself with a Confederate bayonet letter-opener, causing a geyser of blood.

From The Daily Beast

A man, dressed in rags, stalks across the field, impaling the bodies with a bayonet.

From The Daily Beast

One of my men whom I knew for a womanish fellow, asked if he should put his bayonet through him.

From The Daily Beast

At a feature called Hill 180, under grenade and rifle fire, he led two platoons in a bayonet charge up the hill.

From The Daily Beast

The Canadians taught me bayonet fighting, and I led a bayonet charge in the Korean war.

From The Daily Beast

I only saw the glitter of a bayonet which a Mexican thrust into his shoulder, at the very moment he was helping me up.

From Project Gutenberg

To save his faithful servant Frank wheeled Nejdi, and cut down a native who was lunging at Chumru with a bayonet.

From Project Gutenberg

Mine should be of pure steel; I have ordered her out of my consciousness these last weeks at the point of the bayonet.

From Project Gutenberg

They are faced by a horrid redoubt held by machine guns, and they are to rush it with the bayonet.

From Project Gutenberg

At the critical moment of the Austrian counter-attack at Dego, Lannes cleared the village by a brisk bayonet charge.

From Project Gutenberg