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Dart

//dɑːt// name, noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    Acronym of Dublin Area Rapid Transit. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
  2. 2
    A river in Devon, England, which flows from Dartmoor to the English Channel at Dartmouth.
  3. 3
    A surname from Middle English.
  4. 4
    Acronym of Diversity arrays technology (“a genetic marker technique”). abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
  5. 5
    Acronym of Dallas Area Rapid Transit. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    An unincorporated community in Washington County, Ohio, United States, said to be named for a bird flying like a dart.
Noun
  1. 1
    A pointed missile weapon, intended to be thrown by the hand; for example, a short lance or javelin.

    "Then said Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee. And he took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak."

  2. 2
    Acronym of disaster assistance response team. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
  3. 3
    An officer trained at Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, England. UK, slang
  4. 4
    a sudden quick movement wordnet
  5. 5
    Any sharp-pointed missile weapon, such as an arrow.
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  1. 6
    Disaster animal response team.
  2. 7
    a tapered tuck made in dressmaking wordnet
  3. 8
    Anything resembling such a missile; something that pierces or wounds like such a weapon. figuratively, sometimes

    "The artful inquiry, whose venom′d dart / Scarce wounds the hearing while it stabs the heart."

  4. 9
    Disaster area response team.
  5. 10
    a small narrow pointed missile that is thrown or shot wordnet
  6. 11
    A small object with a pointed tip at one end and feathers at the other, which is thrown at a target in the game of darts.
  7. 12
    Abbreviation of disaster assistance and rescue team. abbreviation, alt-of
  8. 13
    A cigarette. Australia, Canada, colloquial

    "2017, April 18, Craig Little, The Guardian, Hawthorn are not the only ones finding that things can get worse The Tigers will also face Jesse Hogan, still smarting from missing a couple of games but not life inside the AFL bubble, where you can’t even light up a dart at a music festival without someone filming it and sending it to the six o’clock news."

  9. 14
    Disaster response team.
  10. 15
    A dart-shaped target towed behind an aircraft to train shooters.

    "Fighter aircraft also use restricted areas for target shooting at darts towed 1500 feet behind another aircraft."

  11. 16
    A plan or scheme. Australia, obsolete

    "Trucking′s my dart too."

  12. 17
    A sudden or fast movement.

    "Soon as I felt the floor tremor I made a dart for the door."

  13. 18
    A fold that is stitched on a garment.

    "Somehow she managed, with a cinched waist here and a few darts there, to look like a Hollywood star."

  14. 19
    A dace (fish) (Leuciscus leuciscus).
  15. 20
    Any of various species of hesperiid butterfly.
Verb
  1. 1
    To throw with a sudden effort or thrust; to hurl or launch. transitive
  2. 2
    move with sudden speed wordnet
  3. 3
    To send forth suddenly or rapidly; to emit; to shoot. transitive

    "As the sun darted forth his beams, she darted a meaningful glance at me."

  4. 4
    move along rapidly and lightly; skim or dart wordnet
  5. 5
    To shoot with a dart, especially a tranquilizer dart. transitive

    "They had to dart the animal to get close enough to help"

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  1. 6
    run or move very quickly or hastily wordnet
  2. 7
    To fly or pass swiftly, like a dart; to move rapidly in one direction; to shoot out quickly. intransitive

    "The flying man darted eastward."

  3. 8
    To start and run with speed; to shoot rapidly along. intransitive

    "The deer darted from the thicket."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English dart, from Old French dart, dard (“dart”), from Medieval Latin dardus, from Frankish *darōþu (“dart, spear”), from Proto-Germanic *darōþuz (“dart, spear”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerh₃- (“to leap, spring”). Compare Old High German tart (“javelin, dart”), Old English daroþ, dearod (“javelin, spear, dart”), Swedish dart (“dart, dagger”), Icelandic darraður, darr, dör (“dart, spear”).

Etymology 2

From Middle English darten, from the noun (see above).

Etymology 3

From Proto-Brythonic *dar (“oak”). Cognate to the Darent.

Etymology 4

Metonymic occupational surname for a maker of darts, from Middle English dart.

See also for "dart"

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