dag·ger / ˈdagər/ • n. a short knife with a pointed and edged blade, used as a weapon. ∎  Printing another term for obelus. PHRASES: at daggers drawn in bitter enmity.look daggers at glare angrily or venomously at.

dagger

dagger a short knife with a pointed and edged blade, used as a weapon, which is the emblem of St Edward the Martyr, St Peter the Martyr, a 13th-century Dominican friar and priest born in Verona, who was attacked and killed while travelling from Como to Milan (he was wounded in the head with an axe, while the friar who was with him was stabbed), St Olaf (see Olaf II Haraldsson), and St Wenceslas.

In printing, dagger is another name for an obelus.

dagger. Light with both ends pointed, the larger of which is an ogee: it resembles a dagger in Second Pointed tracery. As it is symmetrical about the long axis, and straight, it is distinct from a mouchette, which is curved, and rounded at one end, resembling a tadpole.

dagger XIV. Has the form of an agent-noun in -ER 1, and perh. f. ME. dagge (XIV) pierce, stab; but infl. by (O)F. dague (XIII) — Pr. or It. daga, which has been referred to Rom. *daca ‘Dacian knife’, sb. use of fem. of Dacus Dacian.