I. ˈbāənə̇t, -ˌnet, |bāəˈnet, usu -d.+V noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: French baïonnette, from Bayonne, France, where first made + French -ette
1. : a steel blade made to be attached to or at the muzzle end of a shoulder arm and used especially for stabbing and slashing in hand-to-hand combat
2. : a pin that plays in and out of holes made to receive it and serving to engage or disengage parts (as of machinery)
bayonet joint
bayonet lamp base
II. verb
( bayoneted also bayonetted ; bayoneted also bayonetted ; bayoneting also bayonetting ; bayonets )
transitive verb
1. : to stab with a bayonet
we found their bodies bayoneted right through the blankets — Burtt Evans
2. : to compel or drive by or as if by the bayonet
troops to sabre and to bayonet us into a submission — Edmund Burke
intransitive verb
: to use a bayonet
taught soldiers to bayonet and to survive hand-to-hand combat