DAGGER

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does dagger mean? 

• DAGGER (noun)
  The noun DAGGER has 2 senses:

1. a short knife with a pointed blade used for piercing or stabbing

2. a character used in printing to indicate a cross reference or footnote

  Familiarity information: DAGGER used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DAGGER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A short knife with a pointed blade used for piercing or stabbing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

dagger; sticker

Hypernyms ("dagger" is a kind of...):

knife (a weapon with a handle and blade with a sharp point)

Meronyms (parts of "dagger"):

haft; helve (the handle of a weapon or tool)

hilt (the handle of a sword or dagger)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dagger"):

dirk (a relatively long dagger with a straight blade)

kirpan (a ceremonial four-inch curved dagger that Sikh men and women are obliged to wear at all times)

crease; creese; kris (a Malayan dagger with a wavy blade)

bodkin; poniard (a dagger with a slender blade)

stiletto (a small dagger with a tapered blade)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A character used in printing to indicate a cross reference or footnote

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

dagger; obelisk

Hypernyms ("dagger" is a kind of...):

character; graph; grapheme; graphic symbol (a written symbol that is used to represent speech)

 Context examples 

Beside his right hand a most formidable horn-handled, two-edged dagger lay upon the floor, and near it a black kid glove.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In order to speak he had to take the dagger from his mouth, but in all else he remained unmoved.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I heard him once again when he slew a French squire with his teeth, he being unarmed and the Frenchman having a dagger.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Could I but bind him and gag him in his drunken sleep, then a prick or two of my dagger would arouse him to listen to what I had to say to him.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Every line, every word was—in the hackneyed metaphor which their dear writer, were she here, would forbid—a dagger to my heart.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

One thing led to another, and then with that dagger so handy the end soon came.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The kind whisper went to my heart like a dagger.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Just as the dagger is at his heart, a lovely song is sung under his window, informing him that Zara is true but in danger, and he can save her if he will.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I carried pistols and a dagger constantly about me and was ever on the watch to prevent artifice, and by these means gained a greater degree of tranquillity.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

In one perhaps there may be a dagger, in another a few drops of blood, and in a third the remains of some instrument of torture; but there being nothing in all this out of the common way, and your lamp being nearly exhausted, you will return towards your own apartment.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)