knives

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of knife.

   The drawer rattled with mismatched knives from three different sets.

   Surgeons rely on several specialized knives during a single operation.

   Note

   The plural follows the f-to-v pattern of leaf and leaves, wife and wives. The final sound was once voiced before the plural ending, and the spelling kept that change. The one plural serves every kind of knife: table utensils, daggers, and the cutting blades inside a machine such as a chipper. The same spelling also belongs to a rare verb form, but after "the" or "some" it is always the noun.

2. 2
   verbrare

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of knive, a rare variant of the verb knife.

   Note

   This form comes from knive, a rare variant of the verb knife, so it sits at the edge of everyday usage. Its paradigm runs knive, knives, knived. The meaning is the ordinary one: to cut with a blade or to stab someone with it. In most writing, the plain verb knife is the safer choice, and that leaves the spelling knives to the plural noun.

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