Definition of "broadsword" [broad•sword]

• A sword with a wide, usually two-edged blade that is designed for slashing rather than thrusting. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "You ask me for my right to examine you, sir (to Henry); my cockade and my broadsword are my commission, and a better one than ever"
• "His broadsword was a heavy weapon, but he made it sing in interlocked figure eights about his head and to either side."
• "For the broadsword, which is always swung in an arc and never employed in stabbing, they say: “The sword seeks the breath line,” which means to them the neck, and thereby the cutting off of the head from the body."