dart
English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /dɑːt/
- (General American) enPR: därt, IPA(key): /dɑɹt/
Audio (US) (file)
- (Ottawa Valley) IPA(key): [daɹt̚], [daɹɾ̥]
Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)t
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”).
Noun
dart (plural darts)
- A pointed missile weapon, intended to be thrown by the hand; for example, a short lance or javelin.
- 1769, Oxford Standard Text, “King James Bible”, in 2 Samuel, xviii, 14:
- 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.
- Any sharp-pointed missile weapon, such as an arrow.
- (sometimes figurative) Anything resembling such a missile; something that pierces or wounds like such a weapon.
- 1830, Hannah More, Sensibility: The Works of Hannah More, volume 1, page 38:
- The artful inquiry, whose venom′d dart / Scarce wounds the hearing while it stabs the heart.
- 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.
- (Australia, Canada, colloquial) A cigarette.
- 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.
- 2017, April 18, Craig Little, The Guardian, Hawthorn are not the only ones finding that things can get worse
- (military) A dart-shaped target towed behind an aircraft to train shooters.
- 1988, Michigan Aviation, volumes 21-25, page 62:
- Fighter aircraft also use restricted areas for target shooting at darts towed 1500 feet behind another aircraft.
- (Australia, obsolete) A plan or scheme.
- 1947, Norman Lindsay, Halfway to Anywhere, published 1970, page 79:
- Trucking′s my dart too.
- A sudden or fast movement.
- 2011 September 24, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 67-3 Romania”, in BBC Sport:
- Six minutes later Cueto went over for his second try after the recalled Mike Tindall found him with a perfectly-timed pass, before Ashton went on another dart, this time down his opposite wing, only for his speculative pass inside to be ruled forward.
- (sewing) A fold that is stitched on a garment.
- A dace (fish) (Leuciscus leuciscus).
- Any of various species of hesperiid butterfly.
Derived terms
Translations
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Etymology 2
From Middle English darten, from the noun (see above).
Verb
dart (third-person singular simple present darts, present participle darting, simple past and past participle darted)
- (transitive) To throw with a sudden effort or thrust; to hurl or launch.
- (transitive) To send forth suddenly or rapidly; to emit; to shoot.
- The sun darts forth his beams.
- 1717, Alexander Pope, “Autumn. The Third Pastoral. […]”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], →OCLC, page 28:
- Pan came, and ask'd, what magic caus'd my ſmart, / Or what ill eyes malignant glances dart?
- 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Eternal City”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 432:
- Yossarian responded to the thought by slipping away stealthily from the police and almost tripped over the feet of a burly woman of forty hastening across the intersection guiltily, darting furtive, vindictive glances behind her toward a woman of eighty with thick, bandaged ankles doddering after her in a losing pursuit.
- (transitive) To shoot with a dart, especially a tranquilizer dart.
- They had to dart the animal to get close enough to help
- (intransitive) To fly or pass swiftly, like a dart; to move rapidly in one direction; to shoot out quickly.
- The flying man darted eastward.
- (intransitive) To start and run with speed; to shoot rapidly along.
- The deer darted from the thicket.
- 2015 February 24, Daniel Taylor, “Luis Suárez strikes twice as Barcelona teach Manchester City a lesson”, in The Guardian (London):
- By half-time, it was almost a surprise that the away side had restricted themselves to only one more goal. Messi, again, was prominently involved, darting past Fernando and then Zabaleta.
Derived terms
Translations
References
- “dart”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Dutch
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /dɑrt/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: dart
- Rhymes: -ɑrt
Derived terms
- darten
- dartpijl
Middle English
Etymology 1
From Old French dart, dard, from Medieval Latin dardus, from Frankish *darōþu, from Proto-Germanic *darōþuz.
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /dart/
Noun
dart (plural dartes)
References
- “dart, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-06-29.
Etymology 2
Formed from the noun.
Middle French
Etymology
Old French, see below
Norwegian Bokmål
References
- “dart” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian Nynorsk
Noun
dart m (definite singular darten, indefinite plural dartar, definite plural dartane)
References
- “dart” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
Old French
Etymology
From Medieval Latin dardus (“spear”).
Palauan
Etymology
From Pre-Palauan *ðaðut, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *ʀatus, from Proto-Austronesian *ɣatus.
Pennsylvania German
Swedish
Etymology
From Old Norse darr, from Proto-Germanic *darōþuz.
Derived terms
See also
- pilkastning (throwing darts against a board generally)