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
In the Kremlin armory Nehru lingered over a small dirk of Indian craftsmanship, once owned by Peter the Great.
From Time Magazine Archive
Behind them, a kilted soldier carried a sheathed dirk at the salute, closely followed by a proud bearer holding on high a bottle of King's Ransom Scotch whiskey.
From Time Magazine Archive
He carried dirk and dagger for closer work.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
"A further interest rate rise of 25 basis points on Thursday is highly likely," said Dirk Schumacher, chief economist at German public lender KfW.
From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026
This is the advice of many observers, including Citi’s global macro research team led by Dirk Willer.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
“Germany was certainly a globalization winner,” said Dirk Schumacher, chief economist at the state-owned KfW development bank.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
This is what happened to Dirk Hähnel, now in his 50s, who spent most of his adult life in sheltered workshops near the central-western city of Paderborn.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
Gornuk laughed again and even Dirk gave a dry chuckle.
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
The Rich Barians, who had heard a most exaggerated account of the rising of the Spaniards against the Americans, armed with rifles, pistols, clubs, dirks, etc., were rushing down the hill by hundreds.
From The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52 by Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe
I have no doubt but for their gentry there had been dirks in us before we reached Corryarick.
From John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn by Neil Munro
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
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
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
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.
