Definition of "dart" in English

noun

1. A pointed missile weapon, intended to be thrown by the hand; for example, a short lance or javelin.

2. Any sharp-pointed missile weapon, such as an arrow.

3. (sometimes figurative) Anything resembling such a missile; something that pierces or wounds like such a weapon.

4. A small object with a pointed tip at one end and feathers at the other, which is thrown at a target in the game of darts.

5. (Australia, Canada, colloquial) A cigarette.

   • 2017, April 18, Craig Little, The Guardian, Hawthorn are not the only ones finding that things can get worse The Tigers will also face Jesse Hogan, still smarting from missing a couple of games but not life inside the AFL bubble, where you can’t even light up a dart at a music festival without someone filming it and sending it to the six o’clock news.

6. (military) A dart-shaped target towed behind an aircraft to train shooters.

7. (Australia, obsolete) A plan or scheme.

8. A sudden or fast movement.

   • Soon as I felt the floor tremor I made a dart for the door.

9. (sewing) A fold that is stitched on a garment.

10. A dace (fish) (Leuciscus leuciscus).

11. Any of various species of hesperiid butterfly.

verb

1. (transitive) To throw with a sudden effort or thrust; to hurl or launch.

2. (transitive) To send forth suddenly or rapidly; to emit; to shoot.

   • As the sun darted forth his beams, she darted a meaningful glance at me.

3. (transitive) To shoot with a dart, especially a tranquilizer dart.

   • They had to dart the animal to get close enough to help

4. (intransitive) To fly or pass swiftly, like a dart; to move rapidly in one direction; to shoot out quickly.

   • The flying man darted eastward.

5. (intransitive) To start and run with speed; to shoot rapidly along.

   • The deer darted from the thicket.
   • The fish darted under a stone.