Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A pick, especially with one end of the head pointed and the other end with a chisel edge for cutting through roots.
- v. To use a pickax.
- v. To use a pickax on.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A pick, especially one with a sharp point on one side of the head and a broad blade on the other. The pointed end is used for loosening hard earth, and the other for cutting the roots of trees. See also cuts under pick, n., 1.
- To cut or clear away with a pickax.
- To use a pickax.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A pick with a point at one end, a transverse edge or blade at the other, and a handle inserted at the middle; a hammer with a flattened end for driving wedges and a pointed end for piercing as it strikes.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a heavy iron tool with a wooden handle and a curved head that is pointed on both ends
Etymologies
- Middle English picax, alteration (influenced by ax, ax) of picas, from Old French picois (from pic, pick) and from Medieval Latin pīcōsa, both probably from Latin pīcus, woodpecker. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The logo for Kirk Miller's debonair menswear label, Miller's Oath, is a pickax.”
“A second report from April 2009 describes an Iraqi detainee as being covered in bruises and a scar from being bludgeoned with a pickax.”
The Huffington Post: WikiLeaks Docs Raise Questions On Obama Policies
“Here's what I'm sure of: I wouldn't tolerate someone ripping my dog's teeth out (baby pigs); stuffing him in a cramped wire cage (egg-laying chickens); or swinging a pickax at his face (Blue-Fin Tuna).”
“Miss Chatter took out a pickax on the chap. Fire Jim Bowden wrote that dislike of Dibble is a unifying force among Nats fans.”
The Washington Post: Peter Gammons would shut Strasburg down
“Brian comes out in the first number, looking like a pioneer, carrying a leather shoulder bag and a pickax, singing about the thrill of the American frontier and the great move westward.”
“Grabbing his pickax, he led her to an area with a bowl depression that had a retaining wall bricked around it.”
“He lets the pickax fall to the ground and digs deep into his pocket for a cell phone, punches in some letters and lets Claire copy the number off the screen.”
“His pickax is slung loose in one hand; it is thickly calloused—she can see the cracked lines of dirt even from her car.”
“I sniffed at the saguaros and the bushes, noticed a pickax blade, old and rusty, the kind miners used.”
“Using a clinical pickax to scale sharp sociological heights, Schneider, a historian with a fetish for outré urban doings, locates and explores a provocative nexus of truth and transgression: the place where urban myth, violent crime, medical findings, drug trafficking, media conflation, and policy prerogative overlap and intersect.”
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