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fastened to a handle, but of many different forms and names for different uses; as, table knife, drawing knife, putty knife, pallet knife, pocketknife, penknife, chopping knife, etc.

A switch consisting of one or more knifelike pieces hinged at one end and making contact near the other with flat gripping springs.

A board on which knives are cleaned or polished.

dulum, scale beam, or other piece required to oscillate with the least possible friction. Knife-edge file. See Illust. of File.

A knife with a strong blade from ten to fifteen inches long, and double-edged near the point; -- used as a hunting knife, and formerly as a weapon in the southwestern part of the United States. It was named from its inventor, Colonel James Bowie. Also, by extension, any large sheath knife.

A knife carried in a sheath or case. Addison.

A joiner's tool having a blade with a handle at each end, used to shave off surfaces, by drawing it toward one; a shave; -- called also drawshave, and drawing shave.

A large, strong clasp knife for the pocket; a pocket knife.

A small pocketknife; formerly, a knife used for making and mending quill pens.

A knife with one or more blades, which fold into the handle so as to admit of being carried in the pocket.

A spalting knife.

A knife used in splitting codfish. [Written also spalding knife.]

The part of a cutting tool on the opposite side from its edge; as, the back of a knife, or of a saw.

sitely electrified surfaces. Knight. -- Balance fish. (Zoöl) See Hammerhead. -- Balance knife, a carving or table knife the handle of which overbalances the blade, and so keeps it from contact with the table. -- Balance of power. (Politics), such an adjustment of power among sovereign states that no one state is in…

A thick, heavy knife with a hooked point, used in pruning hedges, etc. When it has a short handle, it is sometimes called a hand bill; when the handle is long, a hedge bill or scimiter.

A surgical instrument consisting of a slender knife, either straight or curved, generally used by introducing it beneath the part to be divided, and cutting towards the surface.

The cutting part of an instrument; as, the blade of a knife or a sword.

Having a blade or blades; as a two-bladed knife. Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass. Shak.

Having a thick edge or point, as an instrument; dull; not sharp. The murderous knife was dull and blunt. Shak.

A kind of large knife resembling a machete. [Phil. Islands]