Inflected stilettoes, stilettoed († stiletted). [f. STILETTO sb.]
1. trans. To stab, esp. mortally, with a stiletto.
1613–4. Bacon, Charge agst. W. Talbot, Resusc. (1657), 55. This King [Hen. IV. of France] likewise, stilletted, by a Rascal votary.
1751. Chesterf., Lett. to Son, 30 June. An excellent and short book; for which, and some other treatises against the court of Rome, he [Fra Paolo] was stilletto’d.
1835. Lytton, Rienzi, IV. ii. How many peaceful men have been stilettoed in the day-light.
2. nonce-use. To mark with a ‘dagger’ or obelus.
1841–57. De Quincey, Homer, Wks. VI. 357. Aristarchus … cancels and stilettoes the whole passage. Ibid., foot-n., ‘Stilettoes’:—i. e., obelises, or places his autocratic obelus before the passage.
