مِغْوَلٌ

[primarily] An instrument with which a thing is destroyed. (Ham p. 648.)

And [hence] used as meaning A knife: and in common acceptation, a knife that is put in the midst of a whip which is as a sheath to it: (Ham ibid.:) a knife to which a whip is a sheath: (Mgh:) or a slender sword, having a flat back (لَهُ قَفًا), (S, O, Msb,) like the knife, (Msb,) the sheath of which is like the whip: (S, O:) or an iron [weapon] that is put within a whip, which thus becomes to it a sheath: (K:) or a whip in the interior of which is a sword: (A'Obeyd, TA:) said to be thus called because its owner destroys with it his enemy unexpectedly: plural مَغَاوِلُ: (TA:) and a thing like a مِشْمَل [or short and slender sword over which a man covers himself with his garment], except that it is more slender, and longer: (K:) and a long نَصْل [or blade], (AHn, K, TA,) of little breadth, thick in the مَتْن [which generally means the part in the middle of which is the ridge, but may here mean the back]: (AHn, TA:) or a short sword which a man wears inwrapped beneath his clothes: (TA:) or a slender sword, having a flat back (لَهُ قَفًا): (K:) or a slender iron [weapon], having a sharp edge and a flat back (وَقَفًا), which the assassin binds upon his waist in order that he may therewith destroy men. (TA.)

[Hence,] فَرَسٌ ذَاتُ مِغْوَلٍ (tropical:) A mare having a quality, or faculty, of outstripping: (O, K, TA:) as though she destroyed the [other] horses so that they fell short of reaching her. (TA.)