butter knife

American  

noun

1. a small knife with a dull blade, for cutting, serving, or spreading butter.

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Etymology

Origin of butter knife

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

“Our butter knife was a brain retractor,” he says with a playful smile.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 10, 2025

Burns’s prose pours out in dense, heavily referential paragraphs you may need more than a butter knife to cut through, and the forward engine of plot feels more like a suggestion than a fact.

From New York Times • Jan. 13, 2024

The butter knife has been separated from the butter dish.

From Salon • Nov. 15, 2023

All sorts of items surfaced: metal parts from the tramway, a rusted butter knife, old Soviet coins.

From Seattle Times • May 10, 2023

I picked up a butter knife and held it out to her.

From "Amal Unbound" by Aisha Saeed