| Library / English Dictionary |
DIRK
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A relatively long dagger with a straight blade
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("dirk" is a kind of...):
dagger; sticker (a short knife with a pointed blade used for piercing or stabbing)
Domain region:
Scotland (one of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; located on the northern part of the island of Great Britain; famous for bagpipes and plaids and kilts)
Context examples:
Watching my chance, I stole five cans of the milk, and that night, when it was Louis’s watch on deck, I traded them with him for a dirk as lean and cruel-looking as Thomas Mugridge’s vegetable knife.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
The dirk, where it had pinned my shoulder to the mast, seemed to burn like a hot iron; yet it was not so much these real sufferings that distressed me, for these, it seemed to me, I could bear without a murmur; it was the horror I had upon my mind of falling from the cross-trees into that still green water, beside the body of the coxswain.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
I had been saved by being prompt; the dirk had struck not half a foot below me as I pursued my upward flight; and there stood Israel Hands with his mouth open and his face upturned to mine, a perfect statue of surprise and disappointment.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Perhaps I had heard a creak or seen his shadow moving with the tail of my eye; perhaps it was an instinct like a cat's; but, sure enough, when I looked round, there was Hands, already half-way towards me, with the dirk in his right hand.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
My new employment struck Hands all of a heap; he began to see the dice going against him, and after an obvious hesitation, he also hauled himself heavily into the shrouds, and with the dirk in his teeth, began slowly and painfully to mount.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
