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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To make or shape with or as if with an ax: hew a path through the underbrush.
  2. v. To cut down with an ax; fell: hew an oak.
  3. v. To strike or cut; cleave.
  4. v. To cut something by repeated blows, as of an ax.
  5. v. To adhere or conform strictly; hold: hew to the line.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To cut; especially, to cut with an ax, a hatchet, or a sword with a swinging blow; cut with a heavy blow or with repeated blows: as, to hew down a tree.
  2. To form or shape by blows with a sharp instrument; cut roughly into form; shape out by cutting: often with out: as, to hew timber; to hew out a sepulcher from a rock.
  3. To cut; inflict cutting blows.
  4. n. Destruction by cutting down.
  5. n. An obsolete spelling of hue.
  6. n. An obsolete spelling of hue.

Wiktionary

  1. v. To chop away at; to whittle down; to mow down.
  2. v. To shape; to form.
  3. v. To act according to, to conform to; usually construed with term.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To cut with an ax; to fell with a sharp instrument; -- often with down, or off.
  2. v. To form or shape with a sharp instrument; to cut; hence, to form laboriously; -- often with out.
  3. v. To cut in pieces; to chop; to hack.
  4. n. Destruction by cutting down.
  5. n. Hue; color.
  6. n. Shape; form.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. strike with an axe; cut down, strike
  2. v. make or shape as with an axe

Etymologies

  1. Middle English hewen, from Old English hēawan; see kau- in Indo-European roots.

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‘hew’ has been looked up 3352 times, loved by 3 people, added to 24 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 9.