Dreaming about
knives

A knife is the most ordinary weapon in the world, since nearly every kitchen has a drawer full of them, and it only works up close. That's a big part of why knife dreams feel so personal. Dreaming about knives usually points to anger, to words that cut you, or to something you want to cut out of your life. And very often the person holding the knife is someone you know.

The reading turns on who held it and what it was used for. Someone coming at you with a knife is a dream about feeling threatened or hurt, while you holding the knife points to your own anger or a decision to make a clean break. A knife chopping onions in a kitchen is something else again, and so is a crime drama watched before bed.

What dreaming about knives means

Knives cut, separate and wound, and they do it close enough that you can see the other person's face. English has a whole vocabulary of knives for feelings, and dreams borrow it.

Anger, yours or someone else's

The plainest reading of a knife dream is anger (yours, or someone else's). A knife in your hand often points to anger you haven't expressed, and a knife in someone else's hand to anger you feel coming at you. People who keep the peace by day sometimes have startlingly violent knife dreams, which is where what they swallow finally shows. If you were frightened of your own knife, ask what you're afraid you'd say if you let yourself.

Words that wound

English talks about cutting remarks, sharp tongues and twisting the knife. A knife dream often follows a conversation that hurt, a comment from a parent, a partner or a boss that you can't stop replaying. The wound in the dream is often where the words landed, so a cut on the hand might be about your work and a wound near the heart about love.

Cutting something out

Knives also separate things that were joined, which is the third reading. People "cut ties", "cut someone off" and "cut their losses", and a knife dream can be about a relationship, a habit or a job you want to end. Surgeons heal with knives, too, so being "under the knife" in a dream can be about something painful that will make you better. If the cutting felt clean and calm, you may be ready to make the break.

Dreaming about someone trying to kill you with a knife

This is the knife dream people search for most, and one of the most frightening. Someone coming at you with a knife is usually about feeling seriously threatened or hurt by a person, often one close enough to reach you, like a family member, a partner or a colleague. Did you know your attacker? If you did, the dream may be showing you how hurt or unsafe you feel around them. A stranger is more often a general threat, stress or a part of yourself you're at war with. One theory of dreaming says frightening dreams like this rehearse danger so we're readier for it awake,^[2] but a dream like this is no forecast of a real attack.

Dreaming about being stabbed

Being stabbed, or killed with a knife, is about being hurt, often by something that went deep. It tends to come after a betrayal, a breakup or a remark that cut you to the bone. Surviving the wound points to resilience. You may not feel it yet. Dying in the dream usually isn't about death at all, but about something in your life ending, a role, a relationship or an idea of yourself. When stabbing dreams return night after night, the nightmares guide has practical steps, and it's worth telling your doctor if they don't ease.

Dreaming about being stabbed in the back

A knife in the back is the old idiom for betrayal turned into a picture. The dream tends to come when you suspect someone of disloyalty, gossip or going behind your back, or when you've just found out they did. Notice who was standing behind you in the dream, and who hugged you or smiled at you before it happened. Sometimes it's a fear more than a fact, so the dream is a reason to look at your doubts, not proof.

Dreaming about stabbing someone

Stabbing someone in a dream can be shocking, but it rarely means you'd hurt anyone. It points to anger you're holding toward that person, or toward what they stand for, and to a wish to end a conflict decisively. Stabbing someone you love can point to a resentment you feel you're not allowed to have. A faceless victim is more often a habit or a trait of your own that you'd like to be rid of. Close to it is the dream of killing someone, which carries much the same weight.

Dreaming about holding a knife

Holding a knife without using it is about power and choice. You have the means to cut, defend or attack, and you haven't decided what to do with it yet, which is why the dream so often comes while you're weighing a hard decision, especially one that's bound to hurt someone you care about. A knife held for protection points to feeling you need to defend yourself. A knife you're hiding is about anger or an intention you're keeping out of sight, much like a hidden gun.

Dreaming about cutting food with a knife

Not every knife dream is violent, and plenty happen in the kitchen. Chopping vegetables, slicing bread or carving a roast is about everyday work, preparing, dividing and sharing. A sharp knife that cuts cleanly is about feeling capable. A blunt one that mangles everything points to frustration, to tools or skills (or a team) that aren't up to the job you've been handed. If you cut yourself while cooking, the dream may be about a small slip, or about hurting yourself while looking after others.

Dreaming about knives according to Jung and Freud

A knife works at arm's length and in plain view of the other person, and the two big dream theories read that closeness differently.

Jung: the face in the dark

What Jung called the shadow is whatever you refuse to see in yourself, and he found it tends to arrive in dreams as an intruder, a pursuer or a stranger of your own sex.^[3] He didn't write about knives, so this is his idea applied. A faceless figure coming at you with a blade in the dark fits it closely, because the anger is real and you've handed it to someone else to carry. When you're the one holding the knife, the shadow has picked up the tool. If you had the first dream, ask what you'd have to admit to take the knife back. If you had the second, ask who you'd like to be rid of and whether you allow yourself to say so.

Freud: the long sharp weapon

On Freud's list of symbols for the male body, knives and daggers sit with the other long, sharp weapons.^[1] In his reading, a knife dream could carry a sexual meaning, desire, fear or aggression mixed with sex, and being stabbed could stand for penetration. He said this plainly, and some readers will find it fits. But his method put the dreamer's memories before any list, so he'd start by asking where you'd seen that knife and who it reminded you of. A dagger, which he named directly, has its own page.

Questions to ask about your knife dream

Who held the knife and where it went are the two things that shape this dream most, so start with them:

• Who had the knife, you or someone else, and did you know them?
• Was it used to attack, defend, cut food or cut something away?
• Where did it go, and did it hurt?
• Has anyone said something lately that cut you?
• Is there something or someone you've been wanting to cut out of your life?

Oniri asks who was holding the knife and how your week has been before giving a reading. A stab in the back from a friend and an onion chopped at your mother's table shouldn't get the same answer.