Cutlass, a sword nearly 3 feet long, broad and nearly straight, mostly used by seamen of the royal navy. Those of the converted pattern of 1871 were pronounced utterly inefficient and unfit for service by a commission in 1887. See SWORD.
Cutlass
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 3: Catarrh to Dion, p. 629
Source scan(s): p. 0640