dirk

CEFRB2

/dˈɜrk/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A short, pointed knife used as a weapon.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A ceremonial dagger worn by naval or air force officers in some nations' militaries; formerly, a fighting dagger used by sailors as a boarding weapon.

Examples

  • Drunk Dirk thinks your fat pigeons are dancing.

  • The word dick itself serves as model for two variants which are probably Midwestern, dirk and dork, also meaning "penis"...

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /dɜːk/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. To stab with a dirk.

  2. A long Scottish dagger with a straight blade.

verb

Extra meaning

  1. To darken.

More examples

In context

  • ...on at least one Midwestern campus a dirk may be an "oddball" student, while a prick (more common) is of course an offensive one.

  • Near-synonym: dork

  • The Claymore is worn on the left side, the dirk on the right, and the Skean Dhu in the stocking […]

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The pirate brandished a sharp blank during the boarding attack.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Etymology unknown, apparently from Scots dirk. First attested in 1602 as dork, in the later 17th century as durk. The spelling dirk is due to Johnson's Dictionary of 1755. Early quotations as well as Johnson 1755 suggest that the word is of Scottish Gaelic origin, but no such Gaelic word is known. The Gaelic name for the weapon is biodag. Gaelic duirc is merely an 18th-century adoption of the English word. A possible derivation is from the North Germanic/Scandinavian personal name Dirk (short for Diederik), which is used of lock-picking tools (but not of knives or daggers). Alternatively a corruption of Low German Dulk, Dolk (“dagger”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *dalk, from Proto-...