from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
axe
n 1: an edge tool with a heavy bladed head mounted across a
handle [syn: {ax}, {axe}]
v 1: chop or split with an ax; "axe wood" [syn: {axe}, {ax}]
2: terminate; "The NSF axed the research program and stopped
funding it" [syn: {ax}, {axe}]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Ax \Ax\, Axe \Axe\, ([a^]ks), n. [OE. ax, axe, AS. eax, [ae]x,
acas; akin to D. akse, OS. accus, OHG. acchus, G. axt, Icel.
["o]x, ["o]xi, Sw. yxe, Dan. ["o]kse, Goth. aqizi, Gr.
'axi`nh, L. ascia; not akin to E. acute.]
A tool or instrument of steel, or of iron with a steel edge
or blade, for felling trees, chopping and splitting wood,
hewing timber, etc. It is wielded by a wooden helve or
handle, so fixed in a socket or eye as to be in the same
plane with the blade. The broadax, or carpenter's ax, is an
ax for hewing timber, made heavier than the chopping ax, and
with a broader and thinner blade and a shorter handle.
[1913 Webster]
Note: The ancient battle-ax had sometimes a double edge.
[1913 Webster]
Note: The word is used adjectively or in combination; as,
axhead or ax head; ax helve; ax handle; ax shaft;
ax-shaped; axlike.
[1913 Webster]
Note: This word was originally spelt with e, axe; and so also
was nearly every corresponding word of one syllable:
as, flaxe, taxe, waxe, sixe, mixe, pixe, oxe, fluxe,
etc. This superfluous e is not dropped; so that, in
more than a hundred words ending in x, no one thinks of
retaining the e except in axe. Analogy requires its
exclusion here.
[1913 Webster]
Note: "The spelling ax is better on every ground, of
etymology, phonology, and analogy, than axe, which has
of late become prevalent." --New English Dict.
(Murray).
[1913 Webster]
from
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
Axe
used in the Authorized Version of Deut. 19:5; 20:19; 1 Kings
6:7, as the translation of a Hebrew word which means "chopping."
It was used for felling trees (Isa. 10:34) and hewing timber for
building. It is the rendering of a different word in Judg. 9:48,
1 Sam. 13:20, 21, Ps. 74:5, which refers to its sharpness. In 2
Kings 6:5 it is the translation of a word used with reference to
its being made of iron. In Isa. 44:12 the Revised Version
renders by "axe" the Hebrew _maatsad_, which means a "hewing"
instrument. In the Authorized Version it is rendered "tongs." It
is also used in Jer. 10:3, and rendered "axe." The "battle-axe"
(army of Medes and Persians) mentioned in Jer. 51:20 was
probably, as noted in the margin of the Revised Version, a
"maul" or heavy mace. In Ps. 74:6 the word so rendered means
"feller." (See the figurative expression in Matt. 3:10; Luke
3:9.)