: a cavalry sword with a curved blade, thick back, and guard
2
a
: a light fencing or dueling sword having an arched guard that covers the back of the hand and a tapering flexible blade with a full cutting edge along one side and a partial cutting edge on the back at the tip compare épée, foilentry 4
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Noun
Even Trump and his choice for Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr, are rattling their sabers and threatening to pull the broadcast licenses of networks that run programs or news stories the White House doesn’t like.—Alex Cranz, WIRED, 21 Jan. 2025 For now, Trump’s saber rattling has settled down to a 90-day, across-the-board tariff of 10 percent for most countries (with the notable exception of China), but even that can quickly become a surcharge of many thousands of dollars.—Will Peischel, Curbed, 30 Apr. 2025 Washington must maintain its resolve in the face of Putin’s nuclear saber rattling, push the Russian economy to the precipice, and help Kyiv achieve the battlefield successes necessary to force Moscow to negotiate.—Alexander Vindman, Foreign Affairs, 27 Mar. 2025 Donald Trump is rattling his coin purse, if not his saber, to add Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal Zone to his domain.—Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 5 Jan. 2025 See All Example Sentences for saber
Word History
Etymology
Noun
French sabre, modification of German dialect Sabel, from Middle High German, probably of Slav origin; akin to Russian sablya saber
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