Meanings
nounswordstick (plural swordsticks)
plural swordsticks
- A cane incorporating a concealed blade; sword cane.
In Gormenghast Swelter's kitchen boy Steerpike also ends his murderous life, pierced by a knife, in the temporary waters of the flooded castle. Steerpike can be understood as an imitator of his former kitchen master Swelter, his slim swordstick a thin copy of Swelter's cleaver.
2005, Alice Mills, Stuckness in the Fiction of Mervyn Peake, page 82
Origin
From sword + stick. First attested in 1858.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
swordstick. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/swordstick
MLA
“swordstick.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/swordstick. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “swordstick,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/swordstick.
Source: swordstick on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.