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:
There’s been talk of bargain hunting and fears of catching a falling knife.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 3, 2026
Experimenting, it seems, with high-contrast printing and an X-Acto knife in his bathroom darkroom, he reduced his figures to lonely shapes of solid black on solid-white backgrounds and vice versa.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
As part of her recovery and healing, Pritchett now raises money for knife crime prevention charities.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
Maybe it’s knowing you won’t have to pull out another knife for three days.
From Salon ● Sep. 22, 2026
If you were born with the teeny-tiny DNA glitch that allowed you to slide in and out of time like a knife through butter, you were handed over to your country’s branch of the Academy.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
Abdullah Albadri was carrying two knives when police officers caught him as he tried to climb over a fence into the Kensington embassy on 28 April 2025.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
“I switch out my pans, and I’m careful with knives and cutting boards to avoid cross contamination,” said Charlie Granquist, chef at Slough Farm.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
But local media published images from different parts of Botswana showing residents gathering around elephant carcasses, some with knives in hand and sharing the meat.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
Just remember, the bigger the knives you are juggling, the more likely you are to hurt yourself.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
“And for this flashlight and these boots. They’ll come in handy. And I’ll leave some money for these whittling knives, too.”
From "Ruby Holler" by Sharon Creech
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
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
From aged three to about seven or eight, we don't let the children go near the cooker or use sharp knifes - maybe just a round-ended knife.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2013
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
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
The quick dives of harbor porpoise, with their tiny dorsal, knifed the water.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 10, 2023
He pointed his arms to the clear spring sky, knifed by the vapor trails of passing airplanes.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 16, 2023
The plants were too green, the sky too blue, the road too black, like a scar knifed into the landscape.
From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby
He didn’t shy from knifing through traffic and taking the ball to the basket, oftentimes hitting the floor hard.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 24, 2022
Point guard Ja Morant’s knifing drives into the defense is central to that — but he has also expanded his range.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 7, 2022
The 66-year-old president was taken to the Sao Paulo hospital for treatment relating to an obstructed intestine following the 2018 knifing.
From Reuters ● Jul. 18, 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
They were knifing their oars into the water rather than digging into it.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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.
