Cutlass

A cutlass is a short, broad sabre or slashing sword, with a straight or slightly curved blade sharpened on the cutting edge, and a hilt often featuring a solid cupped or basket-shaped guard. It was a common naval weapon during the early Age of Sail.

Quotes

• Villain, art thou the son of Tamburlaine,
  And fear’st to die, or with a curtle-axe
  To hew thy flesh, and make a gaping wound?
  • Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great, Part 2: Act 3, Sc. 2

• A gallant curtle-axe upon my thigh,
  • William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act 1, Sc. 3

• ’Twas a cutlass swipe, or an ounce of lead,
  Or a yawing hole in a battered head—
  • Young E. Allison, "Derelict: The Ballad of Dead Men"
  • Champion Ingraham Hitchcock, ed., The Dead Men’s Song (1914)
  • Variant: "gaping" for "yawing"

• ... Darkness and empty chairs,
  This was the port that Alexander Home
  Had come to with his useless cutlass-wounds
  And tales of Cook, and half-a-crown a day—
  • Kenneth Slessor, "Five Visions of Captain Cook" (1931)