knife

A tool with a handle and a sharp edge, used for cutting things.

• Use a knife to cut the bread.
• These knives need sharpening.
• She put down her knife and fork.

Common phrases: sharp knife, kitchen knife, knife and fork, putty knife

A sharp part of a machine that cuts material.

• The machine needs a new knife.
• These knives cut the wood into small pieces.
• Switch off the chipper before replacing its knife.

Similar words: blade, cutter

Common phrases: chipper knife, rotating knife, knife blade

To attack someone by pushing a sharp blade into their body.

• Someone knifed him outside the club.
• The victim was knifed in the back.
• Police arrested the man who had knifed two people.

Similar words: stab

Common phrases: knife someone, knife someone repeatedly, knife someone fatally

To move quickly and smoothly through something, as a sharp blade would.

• The boat knifed through the water.
• Cold wind knifed through his thin coat.
• Her sharp voice knifed through the silence.

How to use it: knife through something (The boat knifed through the waves.)

Similar words: slice, cut

Common phrases: knife through something, knife through water