sword : Idioms & Phrases

• noun sedgelike spring-flowering herb having clustered flowers covered with woolly hairs; Australia
  kangaroo's-foot; kangaroo paw; Anigozanthus manglesii; kangaroo-foot plant; kangaroo's paw.
  

WordNet

• noun a small gang of terrorist thugs claiming to seek a separate Islamic state for the Muslim minority in the Philippines; uses bombing and assassination and extortion and kidnapping
  Abu Sayyaf.
  
  • In 2001 Abu Sayyaf kidnapped twenty people and beheaded one of the American captives

WordNet

• noun a stout sword with a curved blade and thick back
  sabre; saber.
  

WordNet

• noun a sword used in the sport of fencing
  

WordNet

Half"-sword` noun

Definitions

1. Half the length of a sword; close fight. "At half-sword." Shak.

Webster 1913

• (Mil.), a sword, cap, uniform, etc., of the kind or quality prescribed by the official regulations.

Webster 1913

• a sword used on state occasions, being borne before a sovereign by an attendant of high rank.

Webster 1913

• the right arm.

Webster 1913

• a bayonet shaped somewhat like a sword, and which can be used as a sword.

Webster 1913

• noun twining tropical Old World plant bearing long pods usually with red or brown beans; long cultivated in Orient for food
  Canavalia gladiata.
  

WordNet

• one who carries his master's sword; an officer in London who carries a sword before the lord mayor when he goes abroad.

Webster 1913

• a belt by which a sword is suspended, and borne at the side.

Webster 1913

• the blade, or cutting part, of a sword.

Webster 1913

• noun a cane concealing a sword or dagger
  sword cane.
  

WordNet

• a cane which conceals the blade of a sword or dagger, as in a sheath.

Webster 1913

• noun any of various dances by men who step nimbly over swords or flourish them in the air
  sword dance.
  

WordNet

• . (a) A dance in which swords are brandished and clashed together by the male dancers. Sir W. Scott. (b) A dance performed over swords laid on the ground, but without touching them.

Webster 1913

• noun any of various dances by men who step nimbly over swords or flourish them in the air
  sword dance.
  

WordNet

• noun any of several tropical ferns having more or less sword-shaped fronds including one from which the Boston fern developed
  

WordNet

• fencing; a combat or trial of skill with swords; swordplay.

Webster 1913

• noun any of various grasses or sedges having sword-shaped leaves with sharp edges
  

WordNet

• . (Bot.) See Gladen.

Webster 1913

• noun an ornamental tassel on the hilt of a sword
  

WordNet

• a ribbon tied to the hilt of a sword.

Webster 1913

• government by the sword, or by force; violence. Milton.

Webster 1913

• noun any of numerous plants of the genus Gladiolus native chiefly to tropical and South Africa having sword-shaped leaves and one-sided spikes of brightly colored funnel-shaped flowers; widely cultivated
  gladiolus; glad; gladiola.
  
• noun plants with sword-shaped leaves and erect stalks bearing bright-colored flowers composed of three petals and three drooping sepals
  iris; flag; fleur-de-lis.
  

WordNet

• . (Bot.) See Gladiolus.

Webster 1913

• (Naut.), a mat closely woven of yarns; so called from a wooden implement used in its manufacture.

Webster 1913

• noun a constant and imminent peril
  
  • the possibility hangs over their heads like the sword of Damocles

WordNet

• (Zoöl.), a European shrimp (Pasiphæa sivado) having a very thin, compressed body.

Webster 1913

• noun a cane concealing a sword or dagger
  sword cane.
  

WordNet

• a sword cane.

Webster 1913

• noun a scar from a cut made by a sword
  

WordNet

• adjective satellite shaped like a sword blade
  bladelike; ensiform; swordlike.
  
  • the iris has an ensiform leaf

WordNet

Sword"-shaped` adjective

Definitions

1. (Bot.) Shaped like a sword; ensiform, as the long, flat leaves of the Iris, cattail, and the like.

Webster 1913

• to try another's skill in the use of the sword; hence, figuratively, to match one's abilities against an antagonist's.

Webster 1913

• to kill with the sword; to slay.

Webster 1913

• to make peace.

Webster 1913

• to make war.

Webster 1913

• noun tropical American fern cultivated for its finely divided greyish-green foliage; West Indies and southern Mexico to Peru and Brazil
  basket fern; Nephrolepis pectinata.
  

WordNet

• an officer's sword of the regulation pattern prescribed for the army or navy.

Webster 1913