Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An axlike tool with a curved blade at right angles to the handle, used for shaping wood.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A cutting-tool somewhat like an ax, but having the blade placed at right angles to the handle and formed to a curve nearly corresponding to its sweep through the air when in use.
  • To chip or shape with an adz: as, to adz logs or timber.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A carpenter's or cooper's tool, formed with a thin arching blade set at right angles to the handle. It is used for chipping or slicing away the surface of wood.
  • transitive verb rare To cut with an adz.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative spelling of adze.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an edge tool used to cut and shape wood

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English adese, from Old English adesa.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • I didn't know this was a word, but OED lists it as the primary spelling for the more familiar word adze. Old English is so cool.

    February 13, 2007

  • Wow. An excellent three-letter word. :-)

    February 13, 2007

  • Too bad there isn't an English word atoz. But I just put it on my "made up words" list just for the hell of it!

    February 13, 2007