knife up
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: knifes up
form: knifing up
form: knifed up
form: knifed up
form: knive up
Senses: examples: text: For instance, does he suppose that the edges of samples are set only twice, the same as on regular goods, or that they are not knifed up here and there by the foreman of the making room, or that the bottom finish is not given more attention than the stock shoes?
ref: 1901 September 25, “Random Notes”, in Boot and Shoe Recorder, volume 39, number 26, page 53:
text: Next, it is knifed up. That is to say, the whole periphery of the heel, now rugged and uneven with the new pieces which have been added in the "making-up" process, is brought into line with the top-piece and the seat of the heel.
ref: 1919, The Modern Boot and Shoe Maker, page 37:
text: The seat must be knifed-up very cleanly, as shown from A to C all the stitches being entirely covered, and the extreme edge of the seat A C being close to the upper leather D.
ref: 2011, Paul N. Hasluck, Boot Making and Mending, page 150:
text: Knife up the heel to the required pitch, attach the top-piece, and round up square to the top lift.
ref: 2016, A Classic Guide to Making and Repairing Vintage Shoes and Boots, page 103:
glosses: To trim the edges on a boot or shoe of bits of leather, etc. that may be attached to the sides.
examples: text: The following mishap and its repair, I think, end to show marine engineers aboard tramp steamers the value of taking care of what appeared at the time to be useless articles; for it proved to me the advantage of having retained from the junk dealer an old windlass stop valve which had been knifed up, or rather the valve seat had been knifed up so often that it had become thin enough to allow steam to pass through the somewhat porous metal of which it was made.
ref: 1911 January, “Making Use of Odds and Ends”, in International Marine Engineering, volume 16, page 36:
text: The writer ran up against a particularly bad case in which some hundreds of holes had to be knifed up, and in many cases recessed to a depth of ⅜-inch, as it was necessary that bolts of uniform length should be used in erection.
ref: 1918 July 4, T.E.B, “Cutters and Cutter Bars”, in Machinery and Production Engineering, volume 12, page 381:
text: Firgure 3 shows a typical laser cut die before knifing-up. In this case there are 60 cartons cut at one time.
ref: 1970, Conference on Electrical Methods of Machining, Forming and Coating, page 4:
glosses: To trim with a knife.
examples: text: He knifed up a morsel, wandered on, chewing happily.
ref: 1959, Margaret Alison Johansen, Voyagers West, page 67:
text: You knifed up communal butter or jam without bothering to clean your knife of previous food;
ref: 2001, Edge of the World: Ross Island, Antarctica, page 298:
text: They leaned forward to look at each other past Cindy, who was squinting at them narrowly as she knifed up a mixed forkful of pork tenderloin, braised apple-and-walnut cabbage and maple-glazed sweet potatoes, part in question, part in accusation.
ref: 2010, Clanash Farjeon, The Vampires of Ciudad Juarez, page 254:
text: He knifed up a wedge of butter and flopped it into the pan.
ref: 2011, Elizabeth George, In The Presence Of The Enemy:
glosses: To extract a morsel or dab (of something) with a knife.
examples: text: Elkins had knifed up Hines pretty good before running out.
ref: 2012, Lee Collins, The Dead of Winter:
text: Stockton attacks him, gets knifed up himself, but manages to get away.
ref: 2014, Cameron Judd, Kenton's Challenge:
text: I heard loads of stories of young guys being knifed up just for straying into the wrong ends.
ref: 2017, Imran Mahmood, You Don't Know Me:
text: Not wanting it to go to waste, Mason quickly knifed up and separated the hindquarters, skinned it and carved away the tendinous fascia, then put the meat of it in their oversized camp pot for a long simmer with a little mirepoix, potatoes, and boxed wine.
ref: 2022, Lucas Roman, The Greater Fool:
glosses: To cut up or carve up with a knife.
examples: text: Nosegay loafed along at five knots as it knifed up the yacht basin, passing the line of marinas that laced the inner shore of Shelter Island.
ref: 2005, John McPeek, Loma View:
text: A long gouge had been cut in the pristine white sand, a gouge that began at the water's edge, knifed up the sand, and stopped at the rocks at the end of the beach.
ref: 2005, Jane Anderson, Mayday:
text: Weeds knifed up through the cracked cement walkway .
ref: 2008 ·, Ami Silber, Early Bright, page 58:
text: Her hands knifed up between them, then around his neck.
ref: 2014, Dianna Love, Last Chance To Run:
text: The shark knifed up through the foam, glistening slickly in the moonlight.
ref: 2016, Jerrold Mundis, Slave Ship:
glosses: To slice through; to cut or traverse a path through or between.
examples: text: He leaped almost into the teeth of the blue-tinged ray which knifed up with uncanny accuracy from the slit in the roof of the hut.
ref: 2011, Anthony Gilmore, Raiders Invisible:
text: The glass was close enough that the alcohol fumes knifed up her nostrils.
ref: 2012, Kathleen O'Brien, For The Love Of Family:
text: A strange noise knifed up from below.
ref: 2015, Greg Kihn, Horror Show:
text: She stood wobbling with pain and hunger, and all around her blades of raw yellow wood knifed up, kris-edged, from their stumps; poised flame in its near-primal form, one step removed from the sun.
ref: 2015, Nancy Springer, Apocalypse:
text: "Nell," he whispered, and the light knifed up at him, blinding him.
ref: 2019, Geoffrey Homes, The Case of the Unhappy Angels:
glosses: To penetrate sharply upward.
examples: text: Cold draughts knifed up between the duckboards.
ref: 1970, Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave:
text: A gust of wind knifed up the street making him glad of the thick fur of his costume.
ref: 2012, Vicki Jarrett, Nothing Is Heavy:
text: Espel turned up her collar as the freezing wind knifed up the street.
ref: 2013, Tom Pollock, The Glass Republic:
text: He'd left the relative warmth of the subway, and an icy breeze knifed up the narrow street and penetrated his thin quilted jacket.
ref: 2013, Serena Bell, Still So Hot!, page 196:
glosses: To move in a stabbing or penetrating manner
examples: text: Pain knifed up his leg as he landed, the ladder atop him.
ref: 2007, Allison Lane, The Duchess's Diary:
text: The old pain knifed up from some cellar in his chest now and burned with an intensity he'd thought had burned itself out.
ref: 2010, Lewis Perdue, Zaibatsu:
text: A shudder knifed up her back .
ref: 2012, David Corbett, Done for a Dime:
text: A cold shiver knifed up my back .
ref: 2012, J. B. Fisher, Outside of Paradise: Growing Up Amish, page 296:
glosses: To traverse up the body in a quick stabbing sensation
examples: text: I knifed up on the bed. Clean sober awake.
ref: 2000, Peter F. Hamilton, A Second Chance at Eden:
text: He knifed up, startled from a dream.
ref: 2014, Glen Craney, The Yanks Are Starving:
text: He knifed up into the other side, rounded the truck in her huge yard and headed back to the gate.
ref: 2017, Kristen Ashley, The Time in Between:
glosses: To sit up or stand up suddenly.
examples: text: Bond took a last gulp of breath and got going again, still left-handed, away from the cable railway, towards the next flag, a distant dot on the edge of the shadow thrown by the great Matterhorn-shaped peak of Piz Gloria, which knifed up into the spangled sky in dreadful majesty.
ref: 1963, Ian Fleming, On Her Majesty's Secret Service:
text: Above the trees and parallel to the line of darkness, everlasting Everest knifed up into the sky with dreadful majesty.
ref: 2017, Keith Devine, Wilderness of Ice:
text: Soon, all but the most persistent scrub disappeared and nearly sheer cliffs knifed up on either side, catching the afternoon sun in black shadows and brown rock.
ref: 2022, Jeanne Reames, Dancing with the Lion, page Jeanne Reames:
glosses: To rise precipitously.