Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A long, slender, two-edged sword with a cuplike hilt, used in the 16th and 17th centuries.
- n. A light, sharp-pointed sword lacking a cutting edge and used only for thrusting.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A long, narrow, pointed, two-edged sword, used, especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with a guard for the hand, adapted for both cutting and thrusting, but used chiefly for thrusting. Rapier practice was usually with a dagger or hand-buckler held in the left hand to parry the thrust. See cut under
sword . - n. In later English usage, a fencing-sword used only for thrusting.
Wiktionary
- n. A slender, straight, sharply pointed sword (double-edged, single-edged or edgeless).
- adj. Extremely sharp.
- adj. Cutting smarts or keen wit.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A straight sword, with a narrow and finely pointed blade, used only for thrusting.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a straight sword with a narrow blade and two edges
Etymologies
- From Middle French (espee) rapiere. (Wiktionary)
- French rapière, from Old French (espee) rapiere, rapier (sword). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Also, it prevented rape without any consequences on the rapists, which I should have stated more clearly, but it has nothing to do with this raper which you mentioned, which I can only assume is a misspelling of the term rapier, which is a type of sword.”
“Also rapier is right that a “Real World Olympics Village” would be a huge hit.”
“Probably the most memorable bit from "Naked Time", after Sulu running around with a rapier, is crewman Riley singing "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen" one! more! time!”
“In fact, the back edge of this rapier is sharp enough to draw blood.”
“Whereupon I screamed, and the Prince, who was writing in the large vellum book in the oriel window, came out in his velvet skull-cap and furred slippers, snatched a rapier from the wall – the King of Spain's gift, you know – on which I escaped, flinging on this cloak to hide the ravages to my skirt – to hide ...”
“January 5th, 2010 at 4: 47 pm rapier is obsessed with a single concept, and therefore just can’t help but view every other topic through that lens.”
Matthew Yglesias » Regulating Leverage is More Important than Regulating Bubbles
“As vigorous as the aggressor, she also carries a rapier, which is even more formidable and more painful in its results -- at all events, when my finger is the victim!”
“That's the kind of rapier wit I thought had died out with the Algonquin Round Table.”
“The matter of the 'rapier' occurred to me again and so I arrived at a definite decision.”
“Ed, when you have to make facts up to prove your case, you just look foolish for then congratulating your own awesomeness. rapier says:”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘rapier’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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carolinacc's list
jettisoned, yearn, chrestomathy, catachresis, elation, gesundheit, ohne, tertium quid, iota, oscillation, argillous, flagrate and 67 more...
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Greek Fire
being items related to mediaeval warfare, arms and armaments.
caltrop, ballista, trebuchet, mangonel, petard, onager, petrary, hurlbat, francisca, crossbow, longbow, flail and 97 more...
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amagnano's Words
truculent, churlish, antipathy, sociopathy, loquacious, disheveled, pouilly-fuisse, enamored, marked, assuage, ascetic, pagan and 190 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 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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noble mythical words
halcyon, yore, chevalier, geas, dour, clarion, codex, selkie, mythic, rime, hoarfrost, eldritch and 112 more...
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bobfet1's Words
anathema, schadenfreude, sturm und drang, dadaism, serendipitous, obfuscate, kibosh, salacious, misogyny, kismet, madrasah, circumlocute and 129 more...
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Some Words I Love to Use
arcology, strumpet, crux, confected, pedant, bluestocking, cogitation, incensed, lovecraftian, cygnet, dactyl, adytum and 539 more...
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dienekes's Words
chutzpah, lexicon, intrepid, pedagogical, schlemiel, schism, erudite, anathema, pugilist, jaunty, paradigm, automaton and 949 more...
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KaeZoo's Words
flingers, unhinged, driven, flanked, arboreal, venerable, endearing, iconoclastic, fletcher, competent, fireproof, cavernous and 215 more...
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No Comeuppance!
comeuppance, ersatz, mensuration, felicitous, puissant, coccyx, groin vault, jactitation, titivate, crapulous, bibulous, lucubration and 116 more...
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Another day, a whole nother list
rump, spot on, flank, outflank, rank, bedeck, leafhopper, apocope, academic, set-to, point of no return, cloy and 210 more...
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hannah's Words
perpetuity, portmanteau, scintillate, elucidate, surreptitious, reticulate, cavilling, laudatory, milquetoast, inimitable, schadenfreude, ancillary and 212 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, R
retinol, rectory, rhubarb, rancor, recension, rood, redivivus, roborate, redound, ripsnorting, ragtag, recruit and 250 more...
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Words That Sound Dirty but Really Aren't
annals, assassinate, bisect, bubbly, caucus, caulk, colloquialism, concoct, condominium, congeal, congenital, convex and 131 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for rapier.
john “The North American XF-108 Rapier was a proposed American design for a long-range, high-speed interceptor aircraft to defend the United States and Canada from supersonic Soviet bombers.�? More on Wikipedia. Dec 30, 2008