affûter
French, verb
affûter is a French verb meaning “to sharpen; to whet (e.g. a tool)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). Without its accent, affuter is a different word: “post-1990 spelling of affûter”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Aiguiser un outil pour le rendre plus perçant ou plus coupant”.
What does affûter mean in English?
verb
- 1
to sharpen; to whet (e.g. a tool)
- 2
to hone (a skill)
- 3
rareslangto eat
- 4
rareslangto dance
- 5
archaicto mount on a gun carriage
verb
- 1
post-1990 spelling of affûter
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Aiguiser un outil pour le rendre plus perçant ou plus coupant. 2. Tailler en pointe. 3. Disposer le canon afin de le tirer. 4. Manger.
verb: 1. Aiguiser un outil pour le rendre plus perçant ou plus coupant. 2. Rendre plus vif, plus pertinent ou plus acerbe. 3. Disposer le canon afin de le tirer. On dit maintenant : mettre une pièce en batterie. 4. Chasser à l’affût.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of affûter
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- affutant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- affuté participle past
- affute first-person indicative present
- affutes indicative present second-person
- affutons first-person indicative plural
- affutez indicative plural present
- affutent indicative plural present
- affutais first-person imperfect indicative
- affutait imperfect indicative singular
- affutions first-person imperfect indicative
- affutiez imperfect indicative plural
- affutaient imperfect indicative plural
- affutai first-person historic indicative
- affutas historic indicative past
- affuta historic indicative past
- affutâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to affûter
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is affûter in French?
affûter appears about once in every 6 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).