glaive

plural glaives · alternative glave · alternative gleave

1. historicalobsoleteA light lance with a long, sharp-pointed head.

   The lance, or glaive as it is often called, of the eleventh and twelfth centuries was quite straight and smooth; a vamplate was added in the fourteenth, small at first but larger later, for the protection of the right arm.

   1919, R[obert] Coltman Clephan, chapter II, in The Tournament: Its Periods and Phases, London: Methuen & Co., […], →OCLC, page 18

2. historicalA weapon consisting of a pole with a large blade fixed on the end, the edge of which is on the outside curve.

   At that moment Ilane swung the bladed staff—glaive, Kel remembered as it swung, they called it a glaive—in a wide side cut, slicing one pirate across the chest.

   1999, Tamora Pierce, First Test: A Tortall Legend (Protector of the Small; 1), New York, N.Y.: Ember, Random House Children’s Books, published 2018, →ISBN, page 22

   2 more examples

   The Welch Glaive is a kind of bill, ſometimes reckoned among the pole axes. They were formerly much in uſe. [...] In the Britiſh Muſeum there is an entry of a warrant, granted to Nicholas Spicer, authoriſing him to impreſs ſmiths for making two thouſand Welch bills or glaives.

   1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, […], London: […] S. Hooper […], →OCLC, page 52

   With the spear comes the use of the shield; yet the San Cristoval spearmen use no such defence, but turn off spears thrown at them with long curved glaives, and the shields in use in Florida are not made in that island.

   1891, R[obert] H[enry] Codrington, “Arts of Life”, in The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-lore, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 305

3. archaicbroadlypoeticA sword, particularly a broadsword.

   [T]he glaiue which he did wield / He gan forthwith t'auale, and way vnto me yield.

   1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 19, page 144

   4 more examples

   Wherefore do you ſo ill tranſlate yourſelf, / Out of the ſpeech of peace, that bears ſuch grace, / Into the harſh and boiſt'rous tongue of war? / Turning your books to glaives, your ink to blood, / Your pens to lances, and your tongue divine / To a loud trumpet, and a point of war?

   c. 1596–1599, William Shakespear[e], “The Second Part of Henry IV. […]”, in The Works of Mr. William Shakespear, volume III (Consisting of Historical Plays), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon-Press, published 1770, →OCLC, act IV, scene i, page 426

   Juſtice were cruel weakly to relent; / From Mercy’s Self ſhe got her ſacred Glaive: / Grace be to thoſe who can, and will, repent; / But Penance long, and dreary, to the Slave, / Who muſt in Floods of Fire his groſs ſoul Spirit lave.

   1748, James Thomson, “Canto II”, in The Castle of Indolence: […], London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, stanza XXXIX, page 60

   Thus furth he drew his truſty glaive, / While thouſands all arround, / Drawn frae their ſheaths glanſt in the ſun, / And loud the bougills ſound.

   1750, Allan Ramsay, “Hardyknute. A Fragment of an Old Heroic Ballad.”, in The Tea-table Miscellany: Or, A Collection of Choice Songs, Scots and English, […], 11th edition, volume I, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, stanza XXI, page 215

   Yea, that same awful angel with the glaive / Which in disparadising orbit swept / Lintel and pilaster and architrave

   a. 1908 (date written), Francis Thompson, “[Miscellaneous Odes.] Laus Amara Doloris”, in The Works of Francis Thompson, volume II (Poems), New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons […], published 1913, →OCLC, page 124