Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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noun
A purge, in which opponents of a regime or political party are killed or removed.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Alternative letter-case form of night of the long knives (“purge”)
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Alternative letter-case form of night of the long knives (“purge”)
The violent purge against the Sturmabteilung ordered by the leadership of Nazi Party in 1934.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: specifically
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Calque of German Nacht der langen Messer, which see for more. In English it tied in with earlier uses of the motif of long knives, as in phrases like the Treachery of the Long Knives (a pseudohistorical massacre of Celts by Anglo-Saxons), used since at least the 1800s.
See night of the long knives.
Across languages
3 source translations are retained for this English entry.
