Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A large heavy knife with a broad blade, used as a weapon and an implement for cutting vegetation.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A heavy knife or cutlass used among Spanish colonists and in Spanish-American countries, both as a tool and as a weapon.
- n. A fish of the family Congrogadidœ, the Congrogadus (or Machœrium) subducens.
- n. Formerly also matchet, matchette.
Wiktionary
- n. A sword-like tool used for cutting large plants with a chopping motion. A machete's blade is usually 50 to 65 centimeters (cm) long, and up to three millimeters (mm) thick.
- v. To cut or chop with a machete.
- v. To hack or chop crudely with a blade other than a machete.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A large heavy knife resembling a broadsword, often two or three feet in length, -- used by the inhabitants of Spanish America as a hatchet to cut their way through thickets, and for various other purposes.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a large heavy knife used in Central and South America as a weapon or for cutting vegetation
Etymologies
- From Spanish machete, diminutive of macho ("sledgehammer"), from Latin mattea, cognate with Old French machier, French massue, English mace. (Wiktionary)
- Spanish, diminutive of macho, sledge hammer, alteration of mazo, club, probably from maza, mallet, from Vulgar Latin *mattea, mace; see mace1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Old Tomás warned him, "I may be old, but my machete is young!”
“And now 6 years later, his machete is still as sharp.”
Set Visit Preview: The New Friday the 13th « FirstShowing.net
“To them, carving out an eight month old foetus with a machete is much more than an aggravated assault upon the mother, it is an assault upon a second human being.”
“They do carry machetes when they go out walking at night or in the campo, but (other than for work) the machete is mainly as protection against dogs or to whack a snake if they happen across one.”
“And yet the machete is the most important tool for farmers in the developing world.”
“(Sometimes called a machete, panga, bolo in various countries.)”
“He says that nearly every soldier carries a machete, which is a weapon in use among Spanish”
“The machete is the sword of the Cuban soldier, and it will be famous forever.”
“' As one of the people from the fundraising event was closing the door to the club, one person from the other group ran at him and cut him on the ear with what was described as a machete, '' he said.”
“You don't want your roommate to have a machete, which is good," he said about rules for weapons in residence halls.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘machete’.
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Words that are also movies
Unabashedly stolen from a comment made by courier12.
vertigo, serendipity, casablanca, psycho, jaws, fantasia, stagecoach, network, rocky, giant, platoon, unforgiven and 285 more...
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*e?e
Words whose last and third-to-last letters are both "e".
here, eke, were, complete, mete, replete, adhere, where, mere, sphere, austere, aesthete and 99 more...
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TECH - tools
A very wide category. There are possibly tens of thousands tool words in each of the world's languages.
broom, brush, feather duster, floor buffer, hataki, mop, mop bucket cart, needlegun scaler, pipe cleaner, pressure washer, sandblaster, sponge and 286 more...
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Realia from Everywhere
Culturally defined terms and expressions from the four corners of the world
fjord, mistral steppe, tornado, tsunami, polder, kiwi, koala, sequoia, Abominable Snowman, paprika, spaghetti, empanada and 299 more...
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Chop
dhar, chop, ax, cleaver, chopfallen, dolabriform, securiform, dolabrate, barong, machete, froe, guloc and 44 more...
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The Tool Shed
Are you the sharpest tool in the shed? If you had to live in the tool shed -- what tool would you be?
rake-ish, hoe, hedge (my bet) cl..., jig (is up) saw, sump pump, pickaxe, (go) tiller (on a..., scythe not, coping saw, tack(y) hammer, rasp, plumb bob and 27 more...
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Words I like
This is a list of my favourite words (phrases) in english, as a second language. I love them mostly because of how they sound and their meaning.
ninja, cookie, skill, zip, plentiful, digg, debris, pancake, cucumber, fetch, pot, backpack and 461 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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cutting words
sarcasm, sarx, sarcoptic, syssarcosis, shrew, shrewd, screed, scred, shroud, scroll, scrod, scrutiny and 326 more...
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Tuesday words
just the next words that come along
nasality, transignification, lapsarian, disciple, slanguage, atwitter, avast, ahoy, asleep, awake, hymnody, glissade and 573 more...
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gorgonglare's list
the best
zeppelin, ion, laconic, serendipity, cataract, saturnine, syzygy, cinnabar, bistro, lithium, paroxysm, scion and 694 more...
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A History of Violence
rampart, riposte, kris, claymore, cleave, caponier, jujitsu, ninja, rapier, bayonet, shiv, ballistics and 16 more...
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the armourer
Armour and weapons, and the occasional soldier.
gauntlet, vambrace, ballista, arbalest, trebuchet, sabre, epee, foil, flamberge, katana, dagger, switchblade and 80 more...
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Words in "Bird by Bird" That I Don't ...
The Book is "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott. (Great book!)
stroboscopic, primal, spiny, blenny, effectual, jocular, wayward, estimable, luxuriate, gelatinous, bedlam, sophomoric and 45 more...
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Odessa's Words
defenestration, decathect, effulgent, taciturn, ataraxia, coprophagous, nyctitropic, pernicious, paradox, anachronism, synesthesia, cacophony and 223 more...
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Is this a dagger I see before me?
Or a kris? A rapier? A double-bladed hackmonger?
interesting bladesdagger, sword, knife, snee, snickersnee, bayonet, blade, kris, bolo, katana, rapier, lance and 41 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for machete.
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