pocketknife
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See also: pocket knife
English
[edit]
Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Noun
[edit]pocketknife (plural pocketknives)
- A knife small enough for carrying safely and handily in a pocket; usually a folding knife (with blades or tools that the user can fold or retract into the handle).
- Synonym: jack-knife
- Hyponyms: penknife (broadly synonymous in modern usage); Swiss Army knife
- Coordinate term: utility knife
- 1878, Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer Abroad; About Magnanimous-Incident Literature:
- Jimmy had a pocketknife, and he wandered into the drawing-room with it one day, alone, and reduced ten thousand dollars' worth of furniture to an indeterminable value in rather less than three-quarters of an hour.
- 1944, Alfred Lief, Camillus: The Story of an American Small Business[1]:
- The Army, the Navy, the Maritime Commission, and Lend-Lease demanded more and more pocketknives — for demolition kits, medical kits, aviators’ kits, electricians’ kits; knives with tools, knives with marlin spikes. The pocketknife attained a new status — as indispensable equipment for all men in uniform.
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]small knife whose blades or tools can fold in its handle — see also penknife
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