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plural cutlasses
(nautical) A short sword with a curved blade, and a convex edge; once used by sailors when boarding an enemy ship. quotations examples
She could feel Tern’s stare fixed right between her shoulder blades, and knew he was aching to plunge his cutlass there.
2015 September 1, Sarah J. Maas, Queen of Shadows
In vain the captain threatened to throw him overboard; suspended a cutlass over his naked wrists; Queequeg was the son of a King, and Queequeg budged not.
1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter XII, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley
A similarly shaped tool; a machete. examples
third-person singular simple present cutlasses, present participle cutlassing, simple past and past participle cutlassed
(transitive) To cut back (vegetation) with a cutlass. examples