noun
- a short, swordlike weapon with a pointed blade and a handle, used for stabbing.
- Also called obelisk. Printing. a mark (†) used especially for references.
verb (used with object)
- to stab with or as if with a dagger.
- Printing. to mark with a dagger.
- look daggers at, to look at angrily, threateningly, or with hate.
noun
- a short stabbing weapon with a pointed blade
- Also called: obelisk a character (†) used in printing to indicate a cross reference, esp to a footnote
- at daggers drawn in a state of open hostility
- look daggers to glare with hostility; scowl
verb (tr)
- to mark with a dagger
- archaic to stab with a dagger
late 14c., apparently from Old French dague “dagger,” from Old Provençal dague or Italian daga, of uncertain origin; perhaps Celtic, perhaps from Vulgar Latin *daca “Dacian knife,” from the Roman province in modern Romania. The ending is possibly the faintly pejorative -ard suffix. Attested earlier (1279) as a surname (Dagard, presumably “one who carried a dagger”). Middle Dutch dagge, Danish daggert, German Degen also are from French.
In addition to the idiom beginning with daggers
- daggers drawn, at
also see:
- look daggers