Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. an ax having both a blade and a hammer face; used to slaughter cattle
- n. a long-handled battle-ax, being a combination of ax, hammer and pike
- v. to fell someone with, or as if with, a poleaxe
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- v. fell with or as if with a poleax
- n. an ax used to slaughter cattle; has a hammer opposite the blade
- n. a battle ax used in the Middle Ages; a long handled ax and a pick
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Examples
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Wretched brutes there at the cattlemarket waiting for the poleaxe to split their skulls open.
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All that safe, old fashioned boring will be a poleaxe beteen the eyes for them.
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Canidius listened to the exchange feeling as if he had been hit by a poleaxe.
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Shooting me glares which would poleaxe a lesser man.
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The blade of a poleaxe crashed down, splintering the table, and slicing off the heels of Lynch's boots.
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He would throw the gun at him and poleaxe him with it before firing a shot.
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His poleaxe was stuck into the ground at the edge of the circle made by his men.
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Sharpe thought he could hear El Matarife shouting, he thought he saw the poleaxe raised once in the churning mass of men and screaming horses, and then he saw a fence fall at the far side of the marketplace and, as if a whirling flood had been released by a broken dam, the Partisans fled over the broken wattle of the downed fence leaving the square to the triumphant, blood-stained cavalry.
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El Matarife had picked up a great poleaxe that he slung on his shoulder.
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He had seen the black beard that grew up to the high cheekbones, the small eyes, the broad blade of the poleaxe on the man's shoulder.
minerva commented on the word poleaxe
His clenched fist offered to his forehead on your leaving him in just displeasure; I wish it had been a poleaxe, and in the hand of his worst enemy.
Anna Howe to Clarissa Harlowe, Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
December 11, 2007