Switchblade
//ˈswɪt͡ʃˌbleɪd// noun, verb
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A folding knife with a blade which opens automatically (under spring pressure) when a button is pressed.
- 2 a pocketknife with a blade that springs open at the press of a button wordnet
Verb
- 1 To attack or cut with a switchblade. transitive
"I got terrible hangovers from the cheap booze; and, one night, I almost got switchbladed when I put my arm around the wrong "lady of the night."
- 2 To spring open or up. intransitive
"Switchblading open their silvery cell phones, they call their mortgage brokers and say “Buy.”"
- 3 To (cause to) make a sudden move or transition. ambitransitive
"He briefly rocked medical school, switchbladed to accounting and finally joked his first radio script in 1938."
Example
More examples"On a nice spring day, when Jan was digging in the sandbox in the backyard, he found a small box. In the box was a shining switchblade with a mysterious inscription."
Etymology
From switch + blade.
Related phrases
More for "switchblade"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.