Word.ws English Dictionary

bring a knife to a gunfight

bring a knife to a gunfight verb: to enter into a confrontation or other challenging situation without being adequately equipped or prepared.

Verb

bring a knife to a gunfight (third-person singular simple present brings a knife to a gunfight, present participle bringing a knife to a gunfight, simple past and past participle brought a knife to a gunfight)

  1. (idiomatic) To enter into a confrontation or other challenging situation without being adequately equipped or prepared.
    • Isn't that just like a wop? Brings a knife to a gun fight.1987, David Mamet, The Untouchables
    • That is why one should never bring a knife to a gunfight, a worm should not challenge Godzilla, and a chump should never box a boxer.1994, Gus Lee, China Boy, →ISBN, page 310

Forms of bring a knife to a gunfight

third-person singular presentbrings a knife to a gunfight
present participlebringing a knife to a gunfight
past participlebrought a knife to a gunfight
pastbrought a knife to a gunfight
alternative formtake a knife to a gunfight

Questions about bring a knife to a gunfight

What does bring a knife to a gunfight mean?
Bring a knife to a gunfight means to enter into a confrontation or other challenging situation without being adequately equipped or prepared.
What part of speech is bring a knife to a gunfight?
Bring a knife to a gunfight is a verb.
What is the past tense of bring a knife to a gunfight?
The past tense of bring a knife to a gunfight is brought a knife to a gunfight.

Words near bring a knife to a gunfight in the dictionary

  1. brineshrimps
  2. brineworks
  3. briney
  4. Brineys
  5. bring
  6. bring a knife to a gunfight
  7. bring a lump to someone's throat
  8. bring about
  9. bring along
  10. bring an end to
  11. bring around

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bring a knife to a gunfight (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-bring a knife to a gunfight.ogg.

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