rapier

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She came round the tent swift and terrible as a rapier, her steel-gray eyes flashing and fierce.

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Definitions (6)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A long, slender, two-edged sword with a cuplike hilt, used in the 16th and 17th centuries.
  2. noun A light, sharp-pointed sword lacking a cutting edge and used only for thrusting.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • She came round the tent swift and terrible as a rapier, her steel-gray eyes flashing and fierce. —  Boy Woodburn A Story of the Sussex Downs
  • All the steel of his spirit rusted, all the brilliancy of his brain clouded; his life was like a fine rapier which is left in a corner of a dusty attic and forgotten In certain rare states of the atmosphere the gold cross on St. Peter's is visible from some of the peaks of the Abruzzese Apennines. —  The Waters of Edera
  • Voltaire's style is narrow; it is like a rapier--all point; with such neatness, such lightness, the sweeping blade of Pascal has become an impossibility. —  Landmarks in French Literature
  • Villain, to thy faithlessness I owe the loss of my bride Though the rapier was at the very throat of Jacopo, he did not flinch. —  The Bravo
  • The head of the serpent shot forward like a rapier, and reached his breast. —  The Forest Exiles The Perils of a Peruvian Family in the Wilds of the Amazon
 

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This word has been looked up 81 times.

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French rapière, from Old French (espee) rapiere, rapier (sword).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = Dutch rapier, rappier = Low German rapier = German rappier = Swedish Danish rapier, from Old French rapiere, raspiere, French rapière, French dial. raipeire (Middle Latin rapperia), a rapier; prob., as the form raspiere and various allusions indicate, of Spanish origin, a name given orig. in contempt, as if ‘a poker,’ from Spanish raspadera, a raker, from raspar, rapar = Portuguese rapar = Old French rasper, French râper, scrape, scratch, rasp, from Old High German raspōn, rasp, etc.: see rasp.
 

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/ˈreɪpɪər/
by American Heritage

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