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A short, heavy, curving sword, used in the navy. See Curtal ax. Cutlass fish, (Zoöl.), a peculiar, long, thin, marine fish (Trichirus lepturus) of the southern United States and West Indies; -- called also saber fish, silver eel, and, improperly, swordfish.

A city of Syria. Damascus blade, a sword or scimiter, made chiefly at Damascus, having a variegated appearance of watering, and proverbial for excellence. -- Damascus iron, or Damascus twist, metal formed of thin bars or wires of iron and steel elaborately twisted and welded together; used for making gun barrels, etc.…

ng lines; especially, that which is inlaid with damaskeening; -- formerly much valued for sword blades, from its great flexibility and tenacity.

A sword of Damask steel. No old Toledo blades or damaskins. Howell

bscurity; a place where there is little or no light. Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out. Shak.

he desperation of the moment, the officers even tried to cut their way through with their swords. W. Irving.

tion; ruin; slaying; devastation. The Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction. Esth. ix. 5. 'Tis safer to be that which we destroy Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. Shak. Destruction of venerable establishment. Hallam.

the cause or occasion of death; as, to die of disease or hardships; to die by fire or the sword; to die with horror at the thought. To die by the roadside of grief and hunger. Macaulay. She will die from want of care. Tennyson.

ft by a blow; an indentation or impression made by violence; a dent. Dryden. Every dint a sword had beaten in it [the shield]. Tennyson.

Able to be directed; manageable. [Obs.] Swords and bows Directive by the limbs. Shak.

g discomfited; rout; overthrow; defeat; frustration; confusion and dejection. Every man's sword was against his fellow, and there was a very great discomfiture. 1 Sam. xiv. 20. A hope destined to end . . . in discomfiture and disgrace. Macaulay.

; as, to disjoint limbs; to disjoint bones; to disjoint a fowl in carving. Yet what could swords or poisons, racks or flame, But mangle and disjoint the brittle frame Prior.

; to put to death. The company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords. Ezek. xxiii. 47.

To dissolve or melt. [R.] Swords by the lightning's subtle force distilled. Addison.

within which is the south pole of the ecliptic; -- called also sometimes Xiphias, or the Swordfish.

To pull from a sheath, as a sword. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. Ex. xv. 9.

To deprive of sharpness of edge or point. "This . . . dulled their swords." Bacon. Borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. Shak.

Beaten; hence, blunted. [Obs.] Fencer's swords . . . having the edge dunted. Fuller.

way slowly. To eat, To eat in or into, to make way by corrosion; to gnaw; to consume. "A sword laid by, which eats into itself." Byron. -- To eat to windward (Naut.), to keep the course when closehauled with but little steering; -- said of a vessel.

The thin cutting side of the blade of an instrument; as, the edge of an ax, knife, sword, or scythe. Hence, figuratively, that which cuts as an edge does, or wounds deeply, etc. He which hath the sharp sword with two edges. Rev. ii. 12. Slander, Whose edge is sharper than the sword. Shak.