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bayonets - 2 dictionary results

bay⋅o⋅net

[bey-uh-nit, -net, bey-uh-net] noun, verb, -net⋅ed or -net⋅ted, -net⋅ing or -net⋅ting.
–noun
1. a daggerlike steel weapon that is attached to or at the muzzle of a gun and used for stabbing or slashing in hand-to-hand combat.
2. a pin projecting from the side of an object, as the base of a flashbulb or camera lens, for securing the object in a bayonet socket.
–verb (used with object)
3. to kill or wound with a bayonet.

Origin:
1605–15; < F baïonnette, after Bayonne in France (where the weapon was first made or used); see -ette
bay·o·net   (bā'ə-nĭt, -nět', bā'ə-nět')   
n.  A blade adapted to fit the muzzle end of a rifle and used as a weapon in close combat.
tr.v.   bay·o·net·ed or bay·o·net·ted, bay·o·net·ing or bay·o·net·ting, bay·o·nets
To prod, stab, or kill with this weapon.

[French baïonnette, after Bayonne, a town of southwest France.]
Word History: It is not unusual for a word to come from a place name. Cheddar, from the name of a village in southwest England; hamburger, after Hamburg, Germany; and mayonnaise, possibly from Mahón, the capital of Minorca, are often found together on our tables. The word bayonet, a very undomestic sort of word, also derives from a place name, that of Bayonne, a town in southwest France where the weapon was first made. The French word baïonnette could also mean "a dagger or a knife," and the English word bayonet is first found in 1672 with this meaning. The word is first recorded in its present sense in 1704.
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