cutlass


Also found in: Thesaurus, Acronyms, Wikipedia.

cut·lass

also cut·las  (kŭt′ləs)
n.
1. A short heavy sword with a curved single-edged blade, once used as a weapon by sailors.
2. Caribbean A machete.

[French coutelas, from Old French coutelasse, probably augmentative of coutel, knife, from Latin cultellus, diminutive of culter, knife; see skel- in Indo-European roots.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

cutlass

(ˈkʌtləs)
n
(Arms & Armour (excluding Firearms)) a curved, one-edged sword formerly used by sailors
[C16: from French coutelas, from coutel knife, from Latin cultellus a small knife, from culter knife; see coulter]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

cut•lass

or cut•las

(ˈkʌt ləs)

n.
a short, curving sword with a single cutting edge, formerly used by sailors.
[1585–95; earlier coutelace < Middle French coutelas=coutel knife (< Latin cultellus) + -as augmentative suffix]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.cutlass - a short heavy curved sword with one edgecutlass - a short heavy curved sword with one edge; formerly used by sailors
sword, steel, blade, brand - a cutting or thrusting weapon that has a long metal blade and a hilt with a hand guard
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations
سَيْف البَحّاره
šavle
huggert
hukarileukumacheteviidakkoveitsi
rövid kard
bjúgsverî
kardas
mačete
korsan kılıcı

cutlass

[ˈkʌtləs] Nalfanje m
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

cutlass

[ˈkʌtləs] n (= sword) → coutelas m
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

cutlass

nEntermesser nt
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

cutlass

[ˈkʌtləs] n (History) → sciabola
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

cutlass

(ˈkatləs) noun
a short, broad, slightly curved sword with one cutting edge.
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.
References in classic literature ?
The captain had risen earlier than usual and set out down the beach, his cutlass swinging under the broad skirts of the old blue coat, his brass telescope under his arm, his hat tilted back upon his head.
I drew the short cutlass with which both officers and men of the navy are, as you know, armed out of courtesy to the traditions and memories of the past, and with its point dug into the loam about the roots of the vegetation growing at my feet.
(with much boyish gratification) buckled on a kind of cutlass under his black cloak.
In vain the captain threatened to throw him overboard; suspended a cutlass over his naked wrists; Queequeg was the son of a King, and Queequeg budged not.
The Spaniards told them, with great kindness, that if they were resolved to go they should not go like naked men, and be in no condition to defend themselves; and that though they could ill spare firearms, not having enough for themselves, yet they would let them have two muskets, a pistol, and a cutlass, and each man a hatchet, which they thought was sufficient for them.
So the guard of the Dover mail thought to himself, that Friday night in November, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, lumbering up Shooter's Hill, as he stood on his own particular perch behind the mail, beating his feet, and keeping an eye and a hand on the arm-chest before him, where a loaded blunderbuss lay at the top of six or eight loaded horse-pistols, deposited on a substratum of cutlass.
"Oh, father," continued the executioner, without opening his eyes, as if he feared on opening them to see some frightful object, "it is especially when night comes on and when I have to cross a river, that this terror which I have been unable to conquer comes upon me; it then seems as if my hand grew heavy, as if the cutlass was still in its grasp, as if the water had the color of blood, and all the voices of nature -- the whispering of the trees, the murmur of the wind, the lapping of the wave -- united in a voice tearful, despairing, terrible, crying to me, `Place for the justice of God!'"
My uncle got into his hat and coat, and buckled an old rusty cutlass on; and then we trod the fire out, locked the door, and set forth upon our walk.
Many were the compliments and expressions of politeness that passed between Don Quixote and Don Fernando; but they were brought to an end by a traveller who at this moment entered the inn, and who seemed from his attire to be a Christian lately come from the country of the Moors, for he was dressed in a short-skirted coat of blue cloth with half-sleeves and without a collar; his breeches were also of blue cloth, and his cap of the same colour, and he wore yellow buskins and had a Moorish cutlass slung from a baldric across his breast.
These ten men, clothed like manufacturers, have a good cutlass or a good musket at their saddle-bow, and a good pistol in the holster.
Fain [gladly] would his dogs have known, as breathing heavily and wiping their cutlasses, they gathered at a discreet distance from his hook, and squinted through their ferret eyes at this extraordinary man.
It was a common belief among his neighbors that he had been a pirate--if upon any better evidence than his collection of boarding pikes, cutlasses, and ancient flintlock pistols, no one knew.