dirk
Other forms: dirks
A dirk is a knife that was traditionally carried by Scottish Highland soldiers. A dirk is known as a thrusting or stabbing dagger.
Though it's not common to hear the word dirk these days, the weapon was frequently carried by naval officers during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As recently as World War Two, members of the Japanese navy used dirks in hand-to-hand combat. The word is associated with Scotland, although its precise origin is a little murky — it was originally spelled dork or durk, possibly from the Dutch dolk by way of the German dolch, or "dagger."
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a relatively long dagger with a straight blade
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Vocabulary lists containing dirk
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