knive

Meanings

verbknive (third-person singular simple present knives, present participle kniving, simple past and past participle knived)

present singular third person knives · participle present kniving · participle past knived · past knived

rareRare form of knife.
I could feel my fingernails kniving into my palms.
2010, James Lee Burke, The Convict And Other Stories, →ISBN
4 more examples
all small weak Shoots should be cut close to the main Stems; and (generally speaking) nipping with your Nails, is a better Way than kniving of them.
1733, Practical Husbandman and Planter
Our brains always ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us.
1917/1918, Wilfred Owen, “Exposure”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)
The Greeks were always fighting, drunk, and kniving each other.
2009, Kathleen Mapes, Sweet Tyranny, →ISBN, page 161
Great sheets of rain began kniving horizontally like slashing shards.
2014, Steve Ruedlinger, Almost Paradise, →ISBN, page 30

Origin

Attested since at least 1733. Knife (verb), which is now 150 times more common, is first attested in the 1860s. Related to knife (“short blade”, noun); compare strife (noun), strive (verb).

Full word history & related roots →