[f. KNIFE sb. (See also KNIVE.)]
1. trans. To use a knife to; to cut, strike or stab with a knife.
1865. Daily Tel., 18 April, 3/5. Pirate … who was only ‘knifed’ just prior to winning at Doncaster, secured the judge’s fiat easily at the finish.
1866. G. W. Thornbury, Greatheart, III. 174. I should get you pistolled or knifed, as sure as eggs are eggs, for this insolence.
1883. ‘Annie Thomas,’ Mod. Housewife, 72. I knew better than to knife my oyster.
1890. Doyle, Sign of Four, xi. (ed. 3), 209. I would have thought no more of knifing him than of smoking this cigar.
b. To lift (food) to the mouth with a knife.
1897. Outing (U.S.), XXX. 460/1. These knowledge-seekers … knife their food, feeding both brain and stomach simultaneously. What they lost in manners, they gained in time.
c. U.S. slang. To strike at secretly; to endeavor to defeat in an underhand way.
1888. Nation (N. Y.), 5 July, 3/1. He speaks favorably of them in a leading article, and ‘knifes’ them slyly in paragraphs or extracts.
1892. Boston Globe, 5 Nov., 2/2. The idea is to knife Moise for Congress from the seventh by making the Tillmanites stay away from the polls.
1895. Moreton Frewen, in Times, 19 Dec., 8/3. The liberal knifing of Senators Lodge and Chandler will confirm wavering Irish voters to support the ‘Grand Old Party.’
2. Techn. a. To spread or lay on (paint) with a knife. b. Boot-making. To trim (soles and heels) with a knife.
1887. Ch. Times, 24 June, 516/3. The pigments … are knifed on to the canvas.
1888. Times, 14 May, 6/6. For boots … 1s. a dozen [was paid to the finisher] for knifing.
