Definitions

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  • noun Alternative spelling of poleaxe.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • He dealt out justice here in Brownsville, Texas, where it was said he would "pole-axe" men with an open hand.

    The Four Toughest Men of the Old West 2009

  • Marcus tossed the pole-axe he'd been practicing with back in a rack.

    G'lder Curtis Hox 2011

  • He dealt out justice here in Brownsville, Texas, where it was said he would "pole-axe" men with an open hand.

    The Four Toughest Men of the Old West 2009

  • Ben Smith translates a Polish poll that finds the Poles pole-axe the conservative Obama-betrayed-Poland talking point.

    The Poles Have Forgotten Poland | ATTACKERMAN 2009

  • During his address to the man with the pole-axe, he had turned his back to M. Leblanc.

    Les Miserables 2008

  • After watching Liberals pole-axe conservatives for years as being 'extreme' - which is merely their preferred disingenous code phrase for 'we disagree with them' - it's rather gratifying to see their mock outrage at seeing their favourite tactic deployed against them.

    Archive 2007-02-01 ALW 2007

  • After watching Liberals pole-axe conservatives for years as being 'extreme' - which is merely their preferred disingenous code phrase for 'we disagree with them' - it's rather gratifying to see their mock outrage at seeing their favourite tactic deployed against them.

    On Extremists ALW 2007

  • Also, down among the wheels, of the man with the sledge-hammer, ringing the axles of the fast night-train; against whom the oxen have a misgiving that he is the man with the pole-axe who is to come by-and-by, and so the nearest of them try to get back, and get a purchase for a thrust at him through the bars.

    The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices 2007

  • It is fitted with a powerful windlass, by which one man at the handle can bring the head of an ox down to the ground to receive the blow from the pole-axe that is to fell him — with the means of raising the carcass and keeping it suspended during the after-operation of dressing — and with hooks on which carcasses can hang, when completely prepared, without touching the walls.

    Reprinted Pieces 2007

  • His clenched fist offered to his forehead on your leaving him in just displeasure — I wish it had been a pole-axe, and in the hand of his worst enemy.

    Clarissa Harlowe 2006

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