Universal knife sayings used in conversation

straitshot

straitshot

Joined
Mar 18, 2006
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Old but common sayings related to firearms have always intrigued me, especially when people use them in conversation even though they may not know the original meaning. These sayings convey a particular thought that has almost universal meaning. Such as:
Lock, stock, and barrel
Keep your powder dry
I have my sights set on ___
A flash in the pan
When the smoke cleared
Going off half-cocked
The plan misfired
A shotgun approach to the problem
A loose cannon
Fired a broadside
Many more that could fill a page.

There are similar sayings that are knife-related but I know only a few such as:
To the hilt
It cuts both ways
Stabbed in the back
A dagger to the heart
Like a hot knife through butter
The plan was foiled (?)
They crossed swords over ___


Perhaps someone can direct me to a thread I've missed or, if not, list your's. I'd like to learn more. Regards, ss.
 
Bleeding like a stuck pig
Saber rattling
Walking on a knife edge
Stabbing pains
He/She is the sharpest knife in the drawer
Eyes like daggers
 
Heb 4:12, King James version:
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow,
 
To the point
Bury the hatchet
Cut to the quick
"Rollin like the metal on the edge of a knife"-Meatloaf;-)
It cuts both ways
 
It cuts like a knife.
Armed to the teeth.

(Some Shakespeare, "That my keen knife see not the wound it makes", "Cut if you will with sleep's dull knife")
(Confucius, ... “Why use an ox-knife to kill a fowl?")
 
Fog was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
He/she is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
The razors edge.
 
When a certain friend of mine is having a good day, and someone asks him how he's doing, he replys, "I'm as wide open as a Case knife!"

Nah, I don't know what it means, either.
 
Two common ones:
The first cut is the deepest.
Never catch a falling knife.

I'd also like to add a few international sayings which are related to knives. Wether they are used commonly in the country of their origin or not I don't know. I just think that they contain a lot of wisdom.


A kitchen knife cannot carve its own handle.
Korean

Don't dig your grave with your own knife and fork.
English

A knife wound heals; a wound caused by words does not.
Turkish

Give your wife the short knife, and keep the long one for yourself.
Danish

God made hands before knives.
French

He would not give the devil a knife to cut his throat.
Italian

Honey in his mouth, knives in his heart.
Chinese

If your mouth turns into a knife, it will cut off your lips.
African

In a smith's house the knife is wooden.
Spanish

Man must be sharpened on man, like knife on stone.
Chinese

The fool cuts himself with his own knife.
French

The knife of the family does not cut.
Arabic

The pen can kill a man; no knife is needed.
Chinese

The tongue of a bad friend cuts more than a knife.
Spanish

Whether the knife falls on the melon or the melon on the knife, the melon suffers.
African

Have a mouth as sharp as a dagger but a heart as soft as tofu.
Chinese
 
Or see the daggers in mens' smiles (Shakespeare)

To be gutted (really upset,sorry)
 
He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.
 
Not all there
A Sandwich short of a Picnic
A Snag short of a BBQ
Upset
Mad as a cut Snake
Mad as a Meat Axe.
 
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