bayonet, bagonet

[In Sw. bajo nett; Dan. & Dut. bajonet; Fr. baionette, bayonette; Sp. bayonet a; Port. baioneta; Ital. baionetta. From Bayonne, a French city in the Ba es Pyrénées, near which bayonets were first manufactured in 1640. Derived from Basque baia = good, and ona bay, port.] 1. Military & Ord. Lang.: A military weapon formerly called a dagger, made to be fitted to the muzzle of a gun or rifle, to convert the latter into a kind of pike. At first it was so fixed that it required to be taken off before the gun was fired; but since the battle of Killiecrankie showed the danger of such an arrangement, it has been screwed on in such a way as not to interfere with the firing of the weapon. "The musketeer was generally provided with a weapon which had, during many years, been gradually coming into use, and which the English then called a dagger, but which, from the time of William IIL, has been known among us by the French name of bayonet."-Macaulay: Hist . Eng . , ch. iii. 2. Mech . A pin which plays in and out of holes formed for its reception, and which by its movements engages or disengages parts of a machine.