cutlass

From Middle French coutelas, from Old French coutel (“knife”) + -as (augmentative suffix).

• IPA^(key): /ˈkʌtləs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

English Wikipedia has an article on:

cutlass

Wikipedia

cutlass (plural cutlasses)

1. (nautical) A short sword with a curved blade, and a convex edge; once used by sailors when boarding an enemy ship.
   • 2015 September 1, Sarah J. Maas, Queen of Shadows, →ISBN:

     She could feel Tern’s stare fixed right between her shoulder blades, and knew he was aching to plunge his cutlass there.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter XII, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     In vain the captain threatened to throw him overboard; suspended a cutlass over his naked wrists; Queequeg was the son of a King, and Queequeg budged not.

2. A similarly shaped tool; a machete.

• cuttoe
• hanger
• short sabre

• cutlassfish
• cutlass bearing

cutlass (third-person singular simple present cutlasses, present participle cutlassing, simple past and past participle cutlassed)

1. (transitive) To cut back (vegetation) with a cutlass.