1
: a short curving sword formerly used by sailors on warships
2
: machete
Examples of cutlass in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Farmers harvest the ripe yellow pods by hand, and then crack them open with a cutlass, or thick stick.
—
Patricia Cohen, New York Times, 28 Sep. 2023
Flashes of that larger story do shine through, and the book advances Graeber’s mission: to destabilize our idea of what’s possible and show that humans can, and often do, create egalitarian worlds built on points of consensus instead of the sharp end of a cutlass.
—Sam Dean, Los Angeles Times, 20 Jan. 2023
The pipe’s walls, between 400 and 600 feet long, reach a vertiginous 22 feet, and its edges are cutlass sharp, leaving little to the eye but a cleaved sky.
—Nick Remsen, Vogue, 11 Feb. 2022
One, a nurse once driven from his home by Boko Haram, who lost everything but had found refuge in the estate, has started sleeping with a cutlass under his bed.
—New York Times, 23 Sep. 2021
Marse, where the picong sharp like cutlass and cutting politician down to size and making fun of everything that taking itself too serious.
—M Nourbese Philip, Harper's BAZAAR, 16 Feb. 2021
The original had a leather-washer handle and a D-ring guard like a cutlass.
—David E. Petzal, Field & Stream, 16 Feb. 2019
Creepy Jason’s full-back tattoo depicted a swashbuckling femme fatale, complete with cutlass and pistol, pirate hat, belts and, of course, an eyepatch.
—Catalina Righter, baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll, 25 Sep. 2019
The waving of cutlasses in the narrow waters between Arabia and Iran was the moment when two different and competing approaches to Iran between Western allies crossed.
—Sam Kiley, CNN, 11 July 2019
Patricia Cohen, New York Times, 28 Sep. 2023
Flashes of that larger story do shine through, and the book advances Graeber’s mission: to destabilize our idea of what’s possible and show that humans can, and often do, create egalitarian worlds built on points of consensus instead of the sharp end of a cutlass.
—Sam Dean, Los Angeles Times, 20 Jan. 2023
The pipe’s walls, between 400 and 600 feet long, reach a vertiginous 22 feet, and its edges are cutlass sharp, leaving little to the eye but a cleaved sky.
—Nick Remsen, Vogue, 11 Feb. 2022
One, a nurse once driven from his home by Boko Haram, who lost everything but had found refuge in the estate, has started sleeping with a cutlass under his bed.
—New York Times, 23 Sep. 2021
Marse, where the picong sharp like cutlass and cutting politician down to size and making fun of everything that taking itself too serious.
—M Nourbese Philip, Harper's BAZAAR, 16 Feb. 2021
The original had a leather-washer handle and a D-ring guard like a cutlass.
—David E. Petzal, Field & Stream, 16 Feb. 2019
Creepy Jason’s full-back tattoo depicted a swashbuckling femme fatale, complete with cutlass and pistol, pirate hat, belts and, of course, an eyepatch.
—Catalina Righter, baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll, 25 Sep. 2019
The waving of cutlasses in the narrow waters between Arabia and Iran was the moment when two different and competing approaches to Iran between Western allies crossed.
—Sam Kiley, CNN, 11 July 2019
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cutlass.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Cutlass.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cutlass. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
cutlass
noun
cut·lass
ˈkət-ləs 
: a short curved sword
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