dirk
noun
a dagger, especially of the Scottish Highlands.
dirk
1 American
[durk]
/ dɜrk /
noun
verb (used with object)
-
dirks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dirked,
past participle, past
-
dirking
present participle
Dirk
2
American
[durk]
/ dɜrk /
noun
dirk
British
/ dɜːk /
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
dirksimple
-
dirkssimple
-
have dirkedperfect
-
has dirkedperfect
-
am dirkingprogressive
-
are dirkingprogressive
-
is dirkingprogressive
-
have been dirkingperfect progressive
-
has been dirkingperfect progressive
Past
-
dirkedsimple
-
had dirkedperfect
-
was dirkingprogressive
-
were dirkingprogressive
-
had been dirkingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dirk
1595–1605; originally Scots; of obscure etymology
Explanation
A dirk is a knife that was traditionally carried by Scottish Highland soldiers. A dirk is known as a thrusting or stabbing dagger. Though it's not common to hear the word dirk these days, the weapon was frequently carried by naval officers during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As recently as World War Two, members of the Japanese navy used dirks in hand-to-hand combat. The word is associated with Scotland, although its precise origin is a little murky — it was originally spelled dork or durk, possibly from the Dutch dolk by way of the German dolch, or "dagger."
Vocabulary lists containing dirk
Life on the Mississippi
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A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
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True Grit
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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:
The Russian leader was also said to have given Mr Kim a tea set and an admiral’s dirk – a dagger.
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2024
Prosecutors noted that the knife doesn’t qualify as a dirk or dagger under state law because it was a folding knife in a retracted position.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2022
Author Bullen was firstmate of many a sperm-whale Mutinies, dirk play and shipwreck engross the Cachalot's log around the world.*
From Time Magazine Archive
In the Kremlin armory Nehru lingered over a small dirk of Indian craftsmanship, once owned by Peter the Great.
From Time Magazine Archive
“It’s a dirk and made for a big man.”
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
Mavericks fans staged a faux funeral complete with a casket a day later in front of the Dirk Nowitzki statue outside the American Airlines Center.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2026
“Intervention only works as a bridge to changing fundamentals,” wrote the team of Citigroup strategists led by Dirk Willer, head of global macro strategy and asset allocation.
From MarketWatch ● May 2, 2026
Dirk Schumacher, chief economist at German public lender KfW, said the decline in services inflation had stopped costs from surging too strongly in April.
From Barron's ● Apr. 29, 2026
“These results reflect strong execution of our consumer-centric strategy supported by increased investments behind our brands and growth platforms despite ongoing macro volatility,” Chief Executive Officer Dirk Van de Put said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
“He said,” replied Dirk, “that there are things wizards don’t recognize, either.”
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
Justice Stephen G. Breyer was acidic in his dissent: “Laws addressing repeating crossbows, launcegays, dirks, dagges, skeines, stilladers, and other ancient weapons will be of little help to courts confronting modern problems.”
From Washington Post ● Jun. 24, 2022
Out of his early Georgian property room, Mr. Farnol brings another grand collection of Hessian boots, shirt frills, snuff boxes, rapiers, gleaming dirks.
From Time Magazine Archive
He spied longswords, dirks and daggers, a brace of throwing axes, mail beneath their cloaks.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
"And dirks the beauty of my blossomes rownd."
From English Verse Specimens Illustrating its Principles and History by Raymond MacDonald Alden
Come a' ye chiefs, bring a' your clans, Frae a' your mountains, muirs, and glens, Bring a' your spears, swords, dirks, and guns, To shield and save Prince Charlie.
From The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume V. The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century by Charles Rogers
Parkhurst tells Bullinger, among other novelties, that Riccio was a necromancer, who happened to be dirked; by whom he does not say.
From John Knox and the Reformation by Andrew Lang
I could have walked 100 miles to have dirked him à l’Américaine for his cruelly associating John in the Cockney School, and other blackguardisms.
From Life of John Keats by William Michael Rossetti
"What's no i' the bag will be i' the broo," quo' the Hielandman when he dirked the haggis.
From The Proverbs of Scotland by Alexander Hislop
The man beside the girl kept his smile working and concealed the little stab of jealousy that dirked him.
From The Big-Town Round-Up by William MacLeod Raine
They had their broadswords, and I have this bit supple"—showing a formidable cudgel; "for dirking ower the board, I leave that to John Highlandman.—Ye needna snort, none of you Highlanders, and you in especial, Robin.
From Chronicles of the Canongate by Sir Walter Scott
And neither needed they: they had their broadswords, and I have this bit supple," showing a formidable cudgel; "for dirking ower the board, I leave that to John Highlandman.
From International Short Stories English by Various
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.
