dart

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