dagger

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A short pointed weapon with sharp edges.
2. n. Something that agonizes, torments, or wounds.
3. n. Printing See obelisk.
4. n. Printing A double dagger.
5. idiom. look daggers at To glare at angrily or hatefully.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An edged and pointed weapon for thrusting, shorter than a sword, and used, commonly in connection with the rapier, by swordsmen in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, held in the left hand to parry the thrust of an adversary's rapier. The dagger was also the common weapon of private combat. For the dagger of the middle ages, see misericorde.
2. n. Any straight stabbing-weapon, as the dirk, poniard, stiletto, etc.
3. n. In printing, an obelisk; a mark of reference in the form of dagger, thus: . It is the second mark of reference used when a page has more than one, following the asterisk or star (*). See obelisk.
4. n. In entomology, the popular name of several noctuid moths of the genus Acronycta: so called from a black dagger-like mark near the inner angle of the fore wings. The poplar-dagger, A. populi, feeds in the larval state on cottonwood-leaves. The caterpillar is closely covered with long yellow hairs, and carries five long black tufts. See cut on preceding page. The smeared dagger, A. oblinita, feeds in the larval state on many plants, as asparagus, cotton, and smart-weed; it is black, with a bright-yellow band at the side and a cross-row of crimson warts and stiff yellowish or rust-red bristles across each joint.
5. n. In Sollas's nomenclature of sponge-spicules, a form of sexradiate spicule resulting from reduction of the distal ray and great development of the proximal ray.
6. n. plural In botany: The sword-grass, Phalaris arundinacea, or perhaps Poa aquatica.
7. n. The yellow flag, Iris Pseudacorus.
8. n. Dagger of lath the weapon given to the Vice in the old plays called moralities: often used figuratively of any weak or insufficient means of attack or defeuse.
9. n. Double dagger in printing, a reference-mark (‡) used next in order after the dagger. Also called diesis.
10. To pierce with a dagger; stab.
11. To provide with a dagger.
12. To dagger arms. See arm.
13. n. In ship-building, any timber lying diagonally.

Wiktionary

1. n. A timber placed diagonally in a ship's frame.
2. n. weapon A stabbing weapon, similar to a sword but with a short, double-edged blade.
3. n. The text character (†).

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A short weapon used for stabbing. This is the general term: cf. poniard, stiletto, bowie knife, dirk, misericorde, anlace.
2. n. (Print.) A mark of reference in the form of dagger [†]. It is the second in order when more than one reference occurs on a page; -- called also obelisk.
3. v. obsolete To pierce with a dagger; to stab.
4. n. A timber placed diagonally in a ship's frame.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a character used in printing to indicate a cross reference or footnote
2. n. a short knife with a pointed blade used for piercing or stabbing