bayonet

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

/ ˈbeɪ ə nɪt, -ˌnɛt, ˌbeɪ əˈnɛt /

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See synonyms for bayonet on Thesaurus.com

noun

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.

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.

to kill or wound with a bayonet.

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Origin of bayonet

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

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use bayonet in a sentence

The men took their bayonets to the wooden workspace of the Southerner, but were stopped by Senate doorkeeper Isaac Bassett, he recalled in his memoir.
Troops lodged in the Capitol in 1861. It was a wreck when they left.|Meryl Kornfield, Felicia Sonmez|January 14, 2021|Washington Post
Just two years from celebrating centenarian status, Richardson, now a grandmother of two and a great-grandmother, is still as unrelenting as that woman who pushed aside the bayonet.
Gloria Richardson pushed aside a bayonet as a ’60s civil rights activist. Now 98, she wants the new generation to fight on.|Keith L. Alexander|December 11, 2020|Washington Post
Over time, these museums have all acquired, or been given, a vast amount of objects — from hat stiffeners and uniforms to bayonets and artillery.
Army museums have tens of thousands of artifacts. They’re looking to downsize.|Michael Ruane|December 3, 2020|Washington Post
Six months pregnant, she returned to Detroit and was bayoneted in the back as she tried to enter her house.
The Stacks: The Judas Priest Teen Suicide Trial|Ivan Solotaroff|June 28, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Inked onto his ribs is a single rifle bayoneted into the dirt with names listed on a scroll—his dead friends.
War Nostalgia Is Leading Veterans to Places Like Syria. One Went Missing There.|Elliot Ackerman|May 3, 2014|DAILY BEAST
His coal miner father had been the one whose luck ran out when he was bayoneted to death by a Japanese soldier.
The Famous Artist Lost on MH370|Michael Daly|March 25, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Jim bayoneted it, and then we wrapped it up in our blanket, as if we wuz taking a boy back to the Surgeon's, and fetched it along.
Si Klegg, Book 2 (of 6)|John McElroy
The German said, "I'll give you water" and bayoneted the boy as he lay.
The Escape of a Princess Pat|George Pearson
One soldier shot Holmes dead and another bayoneted Green, so that he died almost at once.
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 5, 1920|Various
He bayoneted the gunner in the act of applying the port-fire, and was himself severely wounded.
Forty-one years in India|Frederick Sleigh Roberts
Many of the enemy were bayoneted in their tracks, others struck down with the butts of pieces, and onward pressed our line.
The Life of Isaac Ingalls Stevens, Volume II (of 2)|Hazard Stevens

British Dictionary definitions for bayonet

bayonet

/ (ˈbeɪənɪt) /

noun

a blade that can be attached to the muzzle of a rifle for stabbing in close combat

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 -nets, -neting, -neted, -nets, -netting or -netted

(tr) to stab or kill with a bayonet

Word Origin for bayonet

C17: from French baïonnette, from Bayonne where it originated

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

bayonet

Origin of bayonet

Words related to bayonet

How to use bayonet in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for bayonet

Word Origin for bayonet