kukri

noun

1. A curved Nepalese knife used especially by Gurkha fighters; many variants exist, but all share recurve as a common theme.

   “In the later part of the Second World War it was customary in the French army to vaunt the ferocity of ‘their’ Algerian Tirailleurs against the Germans, much as the British took pride in the deeds performed by the Gurkhas with their terrible kukris.”

   “Soon, however, the bayonets of the 72nd Highlanders and the kukris of the 2nd Gurkhas began to tell.”