bowie-knife
(ˈbəʊɪnaɪf)
[f. the name of one Colonel Bowie (see last quot.); originally, according to Bartlett, ‘pronounced boo-ee’ (ˈbuːɪ)]
A large knife, with a blade from ten to fifteen inches long and above an inch broad, curved and double-edged near the point, carried as a weapon in the wilder parts of the United States.
| 1842 Dickens Amer. Notes (1850) 32/2 A sewing society..which..never comes to fisty cuffs or bowie-knives as sane assemblies have been known to do elsewhere. 1850 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom xxviii. 268 St. Clare received a fatal stab in the side with a bowie-knife. 1858 O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t 21 The American bowie-knife is the same tool [gladius] modified to meet the daily wants of civilized society. 1885 Daily News 11 Feb. 5/3 The hunting-dagger which belonged to the redoubtable Colonel James Bowie, and which has served as the pattern of all subsequent bowie-knives..is a formidable double-edged weapon, with a horn handle and a curved blade fifteen inches long and an inch and a quarter wide at the hilt. |
Hence ˈbowie-kniving vbl. n.
| 1861 Sala Tw. round Clock 350 Not impassible to imputations of gouging, bowie-kniving and knuckle-dusting. |