Meaning & use
dirk
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Meanings
nouncountableScottish
A short, straight dagger once carried by Scottish Highlanders and still worn as part of ceremonial dress.
Grammar: Often used in historical or Scottish contexts: a Highland dirk.
Patterns
- wear a dirk
- draw a dirk
The piper wore a dirk at his belt as part of his formal outfit.
A silver-handled dirk hangs in the museum's Highland collection.
He drew his dirk and stepped between the two men.
verbtransitivearchaicrare
To stab someone with a dagger.
Grammar: Rare and archaic, found mainly in old writing: they dirked him.
Patterns
- dirk someone
The old ballad tells how the chief was dirked in the dark.
In the novel, a spy is dirked in a narrow alley.
Legend says the traitor was dirked at the gate.
Word forms
| plural | dirks |
|---|---|
| third person singular | dirks |
| past tense | dirked |
| -ing form | dirking |
Common combinations
- Highland dirk
- The Highland dirk was displayed beside a tartan sash.
- draw a dirk
- He drew a dirk but never used it.
- ceremonial dirk
- The officer wore a ceremonial dirk with his dress uniform.
- dirk and sporran
- He completed his outfit with a dirk and sporran.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- dirked verb
- past tense, stabbed with a dirk
- skean dhu noun
- a small knife worn in the sock with Highland dress
Commonly confused: dirk or Dirk?
dirk vs Dirk
With a capital letter, Dirk is a male first name, unrelated to the weapon.
Practice
A dirk is best described as which of the following?
Choose one answer.
A dirk is a short stabbing blade tied to Scottish Highland dress. The wool bag is a sporran, which is the tempting wrong answer since it is also part of the same outfit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “dirk”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.