▪ I. dart, n.
(dɑːt)
Also 4–6 darte, 7 Sc. dairt.
[a. OF. dart, accus. of darz, dars. in 15th c. dard = Pr. dart, Sp. and It. dardo.]
1. a. A pointed missile weapon thrown by the hand; a light spear or javelin; also applied to pointed missiles in general, including arrows, etc.
| c 1314 Guy Warw. (A.) 3488 Launces, swerdes, and dartes. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 178 A darte was schot to þem, bot non wist who it schete. c 1400 Destr. Troy 10548 Parys cast at the kyng..Þre darttes. 1535 Coverdale Prov. xxvi. 18 As one shuteth deadly arowes and dartes. 1662 J. Davies tr. Mandelslo's Trav. ii. 156 They use no other Arms than the Dart, (which they cast..dexterously). 1718 Pope Iliad iv. 511 The sounding darts in iron tempests flew. 1840 Thirlwall Greece VII. 7 After a short siege, he was killed by a dart from an engine. |
b. fig.| 1382 Wyclif Eph. vi. 16 The firy dartis of the worste enmye. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xli. i, Deth with his darte arest me sodenly. 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 201 The too parching Darts of the Sun. 1764 Goldsm. Trav. 231 Love's and friendship's finely pointed dart. a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) II. 259 The lightning's vivid dart. |
c. transf. A kind of eel-spear (see
quot. 1883); a needle-shaped piece of caustic used in surgery;
† a representation of a dart or arrow used to mark direction on a drawing, etc. (
obs.); the tongue or spear of flame produced by a blowpipe.
| 1784 Specif. Watt's Patent No. 1432. 9 The direction of motion of these..wheels is shown by the darts. 1816 Accum Chem. Tests (1818) 174 Expose it to the flame of a blowpipe dart. 1876 tr. Ziemssen's Cycl. Med. IV. 80 Darts of equal parts of iodine and iodide of potassium prepared with dextrine and made as fine as Carlsbad needles, are used..with success in the treatment of..hypertrophied tonsils. 1883 G. C. Davies Norfolk Broads xxxi. (1884) 244 The spear in use on the Ant and Thurne is the dart, and is made with a cross-piece, with barbed spikes set in it like the teeth of a rake. |
d. A light pointed missile thrown at a target in the game called
darts. Also
attrib. and
Comb.| 1901 Stationer, Printer, etc. 1 June 322 Ring Boards. Dart Boards. Parlour Cricket. 1916 H. G. Wells Mr. Britling i. v. §11 Dart-throwing and ring-throwing stalls. 1924 B. Gilbert Bly Market 18 Coconut Saloons. Shooting Galleries. Dart-Saloons. Ibid. 419 Darts, darts, darts, penny a dart. Over 50 wins the prize... No skill needed. 1929 B'ham Post 12 Jan., A peculiar thing I noticed was that two darts, such as they use in public-houses, were near the body. 1941 ‘G. Orwell’ Lion & Unicorn 15 A nation of stamp-collectors, pigeon-fanciers..coupon-snippers, darts-players. 1958 Times 29 Apr. p. x/4 In the past 30 years darts has become the most important of all public house games. Ibid. p. x/5 The darts themselves have changed during the past 20 years, from the comparatively light, wooden-stemmed type with feather flights to a shorter kind with much heavier metal body carrying plastic flights. |
2. Zool. An organ resembling a dart:
spec. a. The sting of a venomous insect, scorpion, etc., or that part which pierces the skin.
b. A dart-like organ in some gastropods, having an excitatory function (see
dart-sac in 8).
| 1665 Hooke Microgr. 163 The Sting of a Bee..I could most plainly perceive..to contain in it, both a Sword or Dart, and the poisonous liquor that causes the pain. 1768 Beattie Minstr. i. x, It poisons like a scorpion's dart. 1860 Hawthorne Marb. Faun xx, His [a demon's] scaly tail, with a poisonous dart at the end of it! 1861 Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. iii. ii. 84 Their [snails'] generative organs..contain a copulative pouch, the dart enclosed in a sac. 1888 Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 118. Ibid. 481 Some Pulmonata and certain species of Doris possess a dart, attached in the former to the female, in the latter to the male, duct. |
3. Dressmaking. A seam joining the two edges left by cutting a gore in any stuff.
| 1884 Dress Cutting Assoc. Circular, To sew the Darts (or Breast Plaits) commence at the top, holding both edges even for one inch. 1893 Weldon's Ladies' Jrnl. XIV. 252/3 The shape is fitted with hip darts. |
4. A name for the snake-like lizards of the genus
Acontias (formerly supposed to be venomous serpents) from their habit of darting upon their prey;
= dart-serpent,
-snake (see 8).
| 1591 Percivall. Sp. Dict., Tiro, a caste, dart, also a serpent called a dart..Acontias. 1607 Topsell Serpents (1608) 696. 1635 Swan Spec. M. (1670) 440 The Dart taketh his name from his swift darting or leaping upon a man to wound and kill him. |
† 5. a. The fish otherwise called
dace or
dare.
| 1655 Moufet & Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 271 Daces or Darts, or Dares, be of..good Nourishment. |
b. Short for
dart-moth: see 8.
6. a. [
f. the
vb.] The act of darting; a sudden rapid motion.
| 1721 R. Bradley Wks. Nat. 71 The first Dart they make at any thing. c 1850 Arab. Nts. (Rtldg.) 306 A bird made a sudden dart from the air upon it. 1867 Trollope Chron. Barset II. li. 87 She rose quickly..and prepared herself for a dart at the door. |
b. The act of casting a dart or pointed missile; the range within which it may be thrown.
| 1839 T. Beale Sperm Whale 180 With their harpoons held above their heads ready for the dart. Ibid. 182 The whale continuing to descend the moment either of the boats got within dart of him. |
7. slang (chiefly
Austral.). Plan, aim, scheme. Also, (one's) fancy or favourite.
| 1882 Sydney Slang Dict. 3 Dart, object of attraction, or enticing thing or event, or a set purpose. 1887 J. Farrell How he died 20 Whose ‘dart’ was to appear the justest steward that ever hiked a plate round. 1889 Boldrewood Robbery under Arms (1890) 29 The great dart is to keep the young stock away from their mothers until they forget one another. 1890 Melbourne Argus 9 Aug. 4/2 When I told them of my ‘dart’ some were contemptuous. 1895 in Morris Austral Eng. (1898) 115 ‘Fresh strawberries eh!—that's my dart,’ says the bushman when he sees the fruit lunch in Collins-street. 1914 Joyce Dubliners 112 Suddenly..he thought of Terry Kelly's pawn-office... That was the dart! Why didn't he think of it sooner? |
8. Comb., as
dart-caster;
dart-holding,
dart-shaped,
dart-wounded adjs.;
dart-moth, a moth of the genus
Agrotis, so called from a mark on the fore wing;
dart-sac, a hollow structure connected with the generative organs of some gastropods, from which the darts (2 b) are ejected;
dart-serpent,
dart-snake, a snake-like lizard of the genus
Acontias (
= dart 4).
| 1550 Nicolls Thucyd. 118 (R.) A certaine nomber of slingers and *dart-casters. |
| 1647 H. More Song of Soul iii. lxviii, No fear of Death's *dart-holding hand. |
| 1819 G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. Index, *Dart-moths. 1848 Proc. Berw. Nat. Club II. 329 Agrotis segetum (the Dart Moth), and Agrotis exclamationis (the Heart and Dart Moth). |
| 1870 Rolleston Anim. Life. 49 A cylindrical hollow muscular organ, the *dart-sac. |
| 1607 Topsell Serpents (1653) 697 Suddenly there came one of these *Dart-serpents out of the tree, and wounded him. 1745 P. Thomas Jrnl. Anson's Voy. 338 (C. Good Hope) The Eye-Serpent..is also call'd sometimes the Dart-Serpent, from its darting or shooting himself forward with great swiftness. |
| 1835–6 Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 203/1 *Dart-shaped mandibles. |
| 1688 J. Clayton in Phil. Trans. XVIII. 135 This I think may..be referred to the *Dart-Snakes. 1843 J. Dayman tr. Dante's Inferno xxiv. 154 Though puffsnake, dartsnake, watersnake, she [Libya] boast. |
| a 1400–50 Alexander 225 Hire bewte bitis in his brest..as he ware *dart-wondid. |
▪ II. dart, v. (
dɑːt)
[f. dart n.: cf. F. darder (15th c.) from dard.] † 1. trans. To pierce with a dart or other pointed weapon; to spear, transfix. Also
fig. Obs.| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iv. 212 As the wilde bole..ydarted to the herte. 1557 Tottell's Misc. (Arb.) 234 Till death shall darte him for to dye. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia ii. 32 Staues like vnto Iauelins headed with bone. With these they dart fish swimming in the water. 1632 Lithgow Trav. x. 489 When death..had darted King Iames of matchlesse memory. 1748 Richardson Clarissa Wks. 1883 VI. 159 She..darts dead at once even the embryo hopes of an encroaching lover. 1752 Bond in Phil. Trans. XLVII. 431 [They] are never sure of darting a whale, till they are within a yard. |
2. To throw, cast, shoot (a dart or other missile).
| 1580 North Plutarch (1676) 770 Such other Iauelins as the Romans darted at them. 1662 J. Davies tr. Mandelslo's Trav. 51 A kind of long headed Pike, which they dart with great exactness. 1770 Langhorne Plutarch (1879) I. 426/1 He bound it fast to a javelin, and darted it over. 1839 T. Beale Sperm Whale 161 They..sometimes get near enough to dart the harpoon. |
3. transf. and
fig. To send forth, or emit, suddenly and sharply; to shoot out; to cast (a glance) quickly and keenly.
| 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 196 Thine eye darts forth the fire that burneth me. 1596 ― Tam. Shr. v. ii. 137 Dart not scornefull glances from those eies. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1638) 171 The Sunne darted his outragious beames so full upon us. 1676 Phil. Trans. XI. 680 (Fire engine) The water issuing out of the tube that darts it. 1705 W. Bosman Guinea (1721) 246 The Camelion..when a Fly comes in his way..darts out his Tongue with utmost Swiftness. 1784 Cowper Task ii. 720 His gentle eye Grew stern, and darted a severe rebuke. 1835–6 Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 272/1 Darting the bill with sudden velocity into the water. 1852 Thackeray Esmond i. viii, Her eyes..darted flashes of anger as she spoke. |
4. intr. To throw a dart or other missile.
| 1530 Palsgr. 506/2 These Yrisshe men darte best, or throwe a darte best of all men. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World ii. 370 One Laodocus in darting. 1662 J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 72 They pursue her [the whale] and dart two or three times more at her. |
5. To move like a dart; to spring or start with a sudden rapid motion; to shoot. Also
fig.| 1619 Fletcher False One ii. i, Destructions darting from their looks. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. III. I. 119 They dart away with the swiftness of the wind. 1794 Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xxvi, A thousand vague fears darted athwart her mind. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xiii, ‘No, no’, said little Ruth, darting up. 1885 Spectator 18 July 950/1 A deer darts out of the copse. 1886 Ruskin Præterita I. 296 The road got level again as it darted away towards Geneva. |