two-edged, a.
(-ɛdʒd, poet. -ɛdʒɪd)
Having two edges; esp. of a sword, axe, etc., having two cutting edges, one on each side of the blade.
In quot. 1712–14 applied humorously to a pair of scissors.
| 1526 Tindale Heb. iv. 12 The worde off god is..sharper then eny two edged swearde. 1546 Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc.) II. 27 My greit twoo edged sword and my lesse tow edged sword. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iv. xxxi. 489 Turner calleth it..Axeworte, bycause Dioscorides saith the seede is lyke a two edged Axe. 1648 Hexham ii, Een twee-snijdigh swaert, a two-edged sword. 1712–14 Pope Rape Lock iii. 128 Clarissa drew..A two-edg'd weapon from her shining case. 1776 J. Lee Introd. Bot. Explan. Terms, Anceps, two-edged, flattened with two opposite sides sharp. 1850 W. Irving Mahomet etc. xxxviii. II. 344 Alashtar..wielded a two-edged sword. 1875 Bennett & Dyer Sach's Bot. 410 The..apical cell..of Isoëtes lacustris is, according to Hofmeister, two-edged when the stem has two furrows. |
b. fig. or in figurative allusion.
| a 1625 Fletcher Hum. Lieutenant iii. iv, She has two-edged eyes; they kill o' both sides. 1661 Boyle Style of Script. (1675) 126, I find all these Topicks..such two-edg'd Weapons, that they are as well applicable to the service of Falshood, as of Truth. 1878 R. B. Smith Carthage 82 Elephants were found to be a two-edged weapon which might be fatal to the hand which wielded it. |