dart

 
Pronunciation: /dɑːt/

noun

  • 1a small pointed missile that can be thrown or fired: the classroom was littered with paper darts she shot the animal with a tranquillizing dart
  • a small pointed missile with a feather or plastic flight, used in the game of darts: Jack’s first dart pierced the treble twenty
  • Zoology a dart-like calcareous organ of a snail forming part of the reproductive system, exchanged during copulation.
  • 2an act of running somewhere suddenly and rapidly: the cat made a dart for the door
  • a sudden, intense pang of a particular emotion: a dart of panic
  • 3a tapered tuck stitched in a garment in order to shape it: stitch collarband on to neck edge and stitch darts

verb

  • 1 [no object, with adverbial of direction] move or run somewhere suddenly or rapidly: she darted across the street
  • [with object and adverbial of direction] cast (a look or one’s eyes) suddenly and rapidly in a particular direction: she darted a glance across the table
  • 2 [with object] shoot (an animal) with a dart, typically in order to administer a drug: he darted the leopard with a long-acting anaesthetic
  • archaic throw (a missile): he darted his fierce iron

Origin:

Middle English: from Old French, accusative of darz, dars, from a West Germanic word meaning 'spear, lance'