paper knife
Americannoun
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a small, often decorative, knifelike instrument with a blade of metal, ivory, wood, or the like, for slitting open envelopes, the leaves of books, folded papers, etc.
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the blade of a paper cutter.
Etymology
Origin of paper knife
First recorded in 1800–10
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.
A discomfiting distinction between a "paper knife" and a "paper cutter."
From Time Magazine Archive
He found it quite easy to get around in Manhattan until he asked for a "paper knife."
From Time Magazine Archive
Then he took his ivory paper knife and carefully slit it open.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
Everything was exactly as I had left it fourteen months before, even to the paper knife still resting in a half cut book, and a hastily scrawled memo upon the blotting pad.
From The Beautiful White Devil by Guy Newell Boothby
Ruth sliced open half a dozen more letters with her ivory paper knife and prepared to drop them into the waste basket.
From The Film of Fear by Will Foster
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.
