dart

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɑːt/
• (General American) enPR: därt, IPA^(key): /dɑɹt/

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• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)t

From Middle English dart, from Old French dart, dard (“dart”), from Old Frankish *daroth (“dart, spear”), from Proto-Germanic *darōþuz (“dart, spear”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰō- (“to sharpen”); compare Old High German tart (“javelin, dart”), Old English daroþ, dearod (“javelin, spear, dart”), Swedish dart (“dart, dagger”), Icelandic darraður, darr, dör (“dart, spear”).

dart (plural darts)

1. A pointed missile weapon, intended to be thrown by the hand, for example a short lance or javelin
   • 1769, Oxford Standard Text, King James Bible, 2 Samuel, xviii, 14,

     Then said Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee. And he took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak.

2. Any sharp-pointed missile weapon, such as an arrow.
3. Anything resembling such a missile; something that pierces or wounds like such a weapon (can be figurative).
   • 1830, Hannah More, Sensibility, The Works of Hannah More, Volume 1, page 38,

     The artful inquiry, whose venom′d dart / Scarce wounds the hearing while it stabs the heart.

4. A small object with a pointed tip at one end and feathers at the other, which is thrown at a target in the game of darts.
5. (Australia, obsolete) A plan or scheme.
   • 1947, Norman Lindsay, Halfway to Anywhere, 1970, page 79,

     Trucking′s my dart too.

6. A sudden or fast movement.
   • 2011 September 24, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 67-3 Romania”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Six minutes later Cueto went over for his second try after the recalled Mike Tindall found him with a perfectly-timed pass, before Ashton went on another dart, this time down his opposite wing, only for his speculative pass inside to be ruled forward.

7. (sewing) A fold that is stitched on a garment.
   • 2013, The Economist, Nadia Popova

     Somehow she managed, with a cinched waist here and a few darts there, to look like a Hollywood star.

8. the dace (fish).
9. (Australia, Canada, colloquial) A cigarette.
   • 2017, April 18, Craig Little, The Guardian, Hawthorn are not the only ones finding that things can get worse

     The Tigers will also face Jesse Hogan, still smarting from missing a couple of games but not life inside the AFL bubble, where you can’t even light up a dart at a music festival without someone filming it and sending it to the six o’clock news.

• cupid's dart
• dartboard
• dart sac
• darts
• lawn dart
• rope dart

From Middle English darten, from the noun (see above).

dart (third-person singular simple present darts, present participle darting, simple past and past participle darted)

1. (transitive) To throw with a sudden effort or thrust; to hurl or launch.
2. (transitive) To send forth suddenly or rapidly; to emit; to shoot

   The sun darts forth his beams.

   Or what ill eyes malignant glances dart? - (Can we date this quote by Alexander Pope?)

3. (intransitive) To fly or pass swiftly, like a dart; to move rapidly in one direction; to shoot out quickly

   The flying man darted eastward.

4. (intransitive) To start and run with speed; to shoot rapidly along

   The deer darted from the thicket.

   • 2015 February 24, Daniel Taylor, “Luis Suárez strikes twice as Barcelona teach Manchester City a lesson”, in The Guardian (London)‎:

     By half-time, it was almost a surprise that the away side had restricted themselves to only one more goal. Messi, again, was prominently involved, darting past Fernando and then Zabaleta.

   • 2010 December 29, Mark Vesty, “Wigan 2 - 2 Arsenal”, in BBC‎:

     The impressive Frenchman drove forward with purpose down the right before cutting infield and darting in between Vassiriki Diaby and Koscielny.

• dartle
• darter

• dart in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

• 'tard, -tard, Art.D., DTRA, drat, tard, trad

From English dart.

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dart m (plural darts, diminutive dartje n)

1. dart

• darte

dart (plural darts)

1. A spear set as a prize in running. - Geoffrey Chaucer

• English: dart
  • → Dutch: dart
• Scots: dart, dairt; dard

• dard, dar

Old French, see below

dart m (plural dars)

1. weapon similar to a javelin

• French: dard

• dard, dar

From Medieval Latin dardus (“spear”).

dart m (oblique plural darz or dartz, nominative singular darz or dartz, nominative plural dart)

1. spear, javelin

• Middle French: dart, dard, dar
  • French: dard
• Walloon: darde
• → Middle English: dart
  • English: dart
    • → Dutch: dart
  • Scots: dart, dairt; dard

• dort
• datt

Compare German dort, da.

dart

1. there

From Old Norse darr, from Proto-Germanic *darōþuz.

dart c

1. darts (the game where the competitors throw small arrows against a circular target)
2. (rare) dart (one of the small arrows in the game of darts)

• pilkastning (1)
• pil (2)