1575 in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations (1589) ii. 437 2. doozen of machetos to minch the Whale.

1648 T. Gage Eng.-Amer. 129 They have no weapons but a Machette, which is a short Tuck.

1697 W. Dampier New Voy. around World ii. 13 We tempted him with Beads, Money, Hatchets, Macheats, or long Knives.

1697 in J. H. Burton Darien Papers (1849) 35 Many Masheet knives.

1699 L. Wafer New Voy. & Descr. Isthmus Amer. 17 Having no Tool with us but a Macheat or long Knife.

1750 E. Kimber Life Joe Thompson II. 155 Arming myself with a Matchet and a Firelock..I left the Vessel.

1827 O. W. Roberts Narr. Voy. Central Amer. 36 We gave them Mosschettes (or G. R. Cutlass-blades) and a variety of toys.

1831 J. Holland Treat. Manuf. Metal I. 142 These tools consist of matchets, canebills and hoes.

1832 M. R. Mitford Lights & Shadows Amer. Life III. 215 The monteros drew their machetes, the sharp broad~swords they usually carry about with them.

1841 J. L. Stephens Incidents Trav. Central Amer. I. vi. 118 The machete, or chopping-knife..varies in form in different sections of the country.

1863 R. F. Burton Abeokuta II. 92 Little things here means matchets and mirrors, kerchiefs and blue baft, rum and tobacco.

?1881 Census Eng. & Wales: Instr. Clerks classifying Occupations & Ages (?1885) 44/2 Sub-order 2.—Tools and Implements..Matchett Maker.

1897 M. Kingsley Trav. W. Afr. 161 A wall made up of strong tendrils and climbing grasses, through which the said atom has to cut its way with a machette.

1938 Z. N. Hurston Tell my Horse xiv. 228 The last two men came out of the gate walking backwards brandishing well sharpened machetes.

1958 J. Cope Golden Oriole xxiii. 131 On the far side of the wooden building an old man hired by Chipi was slowly chopping with a machete at the tropical growth.

1973 Black World Sept. 12/2 The blade of the machete has a deeper significance in the song of the cane cutter.

1980 B. Okri Flowers & Shadows vii. 55 There was a huge cut at the back of his head, the handiwork of a blunt matchet.

1990 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Aug. 150/1 His motorcycle leathers and a machete in a scabbard hanging on the wall.

1850 J. A. Dix Winter in Madeira & Summer in Spain & Florence (1851) iv. 72 Among the instruments which bear a prominent part in concerts and serenades, is the machete. It is an invention of the island... In its form it is a dwarf guitar, the body perhaps eight inches long, with four strings of catgut tuned in fifths. Its tones are like those of a violin, when the strings are snapped with the fingers instead of being played on with the bow, excepting that they are higher.

1897 R. Kipling Captains Courageous iv. 87 Manuel's eye glistened, and..he drew out a tiny, guitar-like thing with wire strings, which he called a machete.

1940 H. J. Grossman Guide to Wines, Spirits & Beers x. 120 As in Spain, vintage time has a festive spirit, and the lively music of the machete (guitar) accompanies the work.

1984 New Grove Dict. Musical Instruments II. 587/2 Machete, plucked lute of Portugal, the Azores and Brazil, with four, five or six strings. Portuguese sailors supposedly introduced the instrument into the Hawaiian islands, where it was transformed..into the ukulele.

1874 J. J. O’Kelly Mambi-land xi. 163 Two residents of Santiago de Cuba had been macheted to death, that is to say, chopped up until they were scarcely recognizable.

1896 A. C. Gunter Don Balasco of Key West xviii. 231 The traveling newspaper correspondents whose passports have been torn up in their faces as they have been macheted in the fields over yonder.

1935 C. Hall in Amer. Mag. Oct. 81 I told the boys..to wait outside until I returned, and I macheted my way in.

1946 A. C. Hicks Blood in Streets xii. 105 There were those who said that Dominican soldiers had stabbed and macheted dozens of Haitians.

1978 J. Epstein in Times Lit. Suppl. 28 July 835/3 He was the first of the publisher's editors to stride boldly into the jungle of a manuscript and machete an editorial clearing.

1980 Amandala (Belize) 2 Jan. 4 It is said that some time in the not too distant past [he] had macheted his brother in law.

1983 Legal Times (U.S.) 7 Mar. 5 A Philadelphia federal district judge..macheted by more than 75 percent the multi-million dollar fee requests of leading plaintiffs' antitrust lawyers.

1986 Punch Winter 79 Ponce de Leon was macheteing a trail through palmetto.

1995 Guardian 5 July (Society section) 4/5 When the massacres started he macheted him and his family and took over his banana fields.

2003 V. Sanford in P. Gready Polit. Transition iv. 80 The girls were stabbed and macheted to death.