halberd

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“
An ensign-halyard-block is no more a pulley than your halberd is a boarding-pike.

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Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun A weapon of the 15th and 16th centuries having an axlike blade and a steel spike mounted on the end of a long shaft.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • “Norman, Picard, French ... It is to me all the same Well said!” booms a new voice from the doorway, and they turn, and there framed they spy a tall man, all bones and angles, with a nose like a halberd and long, wild hair that suggests motion even while standing still. —  AnalogSFF,July-August2007
  • Then he saw the tattered red banner, with the blue halberd-head of Hostigos. —  Carr, John F, Kalvan Kingmaker (v1.0) (html).html
  • They practiced long flights in which arrows fell from the sky in a thick, steel-tipped rain The House Guard worked with sword and halberd, their dance as graceful as it would be deadly. —  Loren L
  • He carried what appeared to be a halberd, a long smooth pole of silver wood topped with a wide green leaf that seemed to possess the rigid sharpness of a blade. —  Loren L
  • “Burning the boats!” He carried a halberd, an evil mating of spear and boathook, equally suitable for splitting a sapling or gutting an enemy. —  StrangeHorizons,July2002
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French hallebarde, from Old French alabarde, from Old Italian alabarda, from Middle High German helmbarde, halmbarte : helm, handle + barte, ax (from Old High German barta; see bhardh-ā- in Indo-European roots).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Also halbard, halbert, holbard; from Old French halebarde. F. hallebarde = Provencal Spanish Portuguese alabarda = Italian alabarda, labarda (cf. Dutch hellebaard = Swedish hallebard = Danish hellebard), a halberd, from Middle High German helmbarte, for *halmbarte (cf. later halenbarte, hallepart, hallipart), German hellebarte, a halberd; generally understood as ‘an ax with which to split a helmet’ (Middle High German G. helm = Anglo-Saxon helm, English helm), but prop, an ax with a (long) handle, from Middle High German halm, helm, German helm, a helve, handle (= Anglo-Saxon helma, English helm, a tiller), + Middle High German barte (Old High German parta), German barte, a broad-ax, = Old Saxon barda = Icelandic bardha, a kind of ax, connected with Old High German Middle High German G. bart = Anglo-Saxon beard, English beard, q. v., = Icelandic bardh, brim, verge, beak of a ship, fin of a fish, etc., = Latin barba, beard (whence English barb, hook, etc.): see helmand beard. Cf. Icelandic skeggja, a kind of halberd, from skegg, beard (see shag); Greek γένυς, the edge of an ax, also applied to a fishing-hook, fork, etc., literally chin, =English chin.
 

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/ˈhælbərd/
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