snickersnee

American  

[snik-er-snee] / ˈsnɪk ərˌsni /

noun

1. a knife, especially one used as a weapon.

---

snickersnee British  

/ ˈsnɪkəˌsniː /

noun

1. a knife for cutting or thrusting

2. a fight with knives

---

Etymology

Origin of snickersnee

1690–1700; variant (by alliterative assimilation) of earlier stick or snee to thrust or cut < Dutch steken to stick ² + snij ( d ) en to cut

Example Sentences

But on Saturday afternoons off he went to "Shadow Lawn," his summer mansion on the Jersey coast, and drew his snickersnee.

From Time Magazine Archive

Authoress Strauss specializes in the cultivated titter, the swift verbal snickersnee.

From Time Magazine Archive

Price is a sort of community-owned snickersnee, drawn when necessary to repel invaders, but not for civil strife.

From Time Magazine Archive

A stowaway foretopman on the ship of state; a franc-tireur for the West and Christendom; a Burke, a Roland, a Quixote, with a whiff of Falstaff and a swing of the snickersnee.

From Time Magazine Archive

"Make haste, make haste," says guzzling Jimmy, While Jack pulled out his snickersnee.

From Ballads by Thackeray, William Makepeace