the knives are out in English

[Show JSON for postprocessed kaikki.org data shown on this page ▼] [Hide JSON for postprocessed kaikki.org data shown on this page ▲]

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "phr",
        "head": "~kni􂀿ves:fe􂁀"
      },
      "expansion": "the knives are out",
      "name": "en-head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Anger",
          "orig": "en:Anger",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "People are angry."
      ],
      "id": "en-the_knives_are_out-en-phrase-6~6utyme",
      "links": [
        [
          "angry",
          "angry"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, chiefly UK) People are angry."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "the gloves are off"
        },
        {
          "word": "at daggers drawn"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-the knives are out.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/54/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-the_knives_are_out.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-the_knives_are_out.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/54/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-the_knives_are_out.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-the_knives_are_out.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "the knives are out"
}

[Show JSON for raw wiktextract data ▼] [Hide JSON for raw wiktextract data ▲]

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "phr",
        "head": "~kni􂀿ves:fe􂁀"
      },
      "expansion": "the knives are out",
      "name": "en-head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "the gloves are off"
    },
    {
      "word": "at daggers drawn"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrases",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Anger"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "People are angry."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "angry",
          "angry"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, chiefly UK) People are angry."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-the knives are out.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/54/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-the_knives_are_out.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-the_knives_are_out.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/54/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-the_knives_are_out.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-the_knives_are_out.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "the knives are out"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-01-13 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (96027d6 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.

"the knives are out" meaning in English

Phrase