twibill, twybill arch. and dial.
(ˈtwaɪbɪl, † ˈtwɪb(ə)l)
Forms: 1 twibile, 1–4 twybile (4 -byle); 1, 4– twibil, 1, 6– twibill (6 -bylle); 1, 4– twybill, 4–6 -bil, -byl(l(e, 6 -bille; 4 twybel(l, 5–6 twyble, 6 twible, Sc. twibbil, 7 twibble; 6–7 twyvel(l, 8 twivil(l: see also tubbal, tubber2, and two-bill (two B. IV. 2).
[OE. twibil, -bill neut., and twibile masc., f. twi- + bill n.1 and n.2]
† 1. A kind of axe with two cutting edges; formerly used for cutting mortises. Obs.
| a 1000 Prose Life Guthlac xii. (1848) 56 He..ᵹenam sum twibil, and mid þan þry men to deaðe ofsloh. a 1000 Ags. Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 194/35 Bipennis securis, twilafte æx, uel twibile. 1295 Acc. Exch. K.R. 5/8 m. 9 (P.R.O.) Et iiij.d...in .j. Twybile emendando. a 1310 in Wright Lyric P. xxxix. 110 He mot myd is twybyl other trous make. a 1340 Hampole Psalter lxxiii. 7 Wiþ bradaxis þai share down þe ȝates of it..in brade axe and twybile [Vulg. in securi et ascia] þai kest it down. 14.. Tundale's Vis. (Wagner) 722 Summe had twybyll, brodax and nawger. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 505/1 Twybyl, wryhtys instrument..bisacuta, biceps. 1500 Ortus Vocab., Bisacuta, a twybyll. c 1500 Debate Carpenter's Tools 13 in Hazl. E.P.P. I. 80 Ȝe, ȝe, seyd the twybylle, Thou spekes euer ageyne skylle. 1548 Elyot's Dict., Bipennis, a twybill, wherwith carpenters doo make their mortayses. 1587 Will of Arraie (Somerset Ho.), Two wombells and a Twyvell. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Twibil (Belg. Tweebill), an instrument used by Carpenters to make mortise-holes. 1686 Plot Staffordsh. 168 Grinding-stones..for thicker edg'd tooles, such as Axes, Hatchets, Chisells, Adds, Twy-bills, &c. |
| attrib. 1641 Wit's Recreat. §583 'Twill make a good ship-anchor, when he lackes. It is his gimlet, and his twibill axe. |
2. A mattock; also a similar tool used in mining, a tubbal. Now local.
| c 1440 Pallad. on Husb. i. 1153 The mattok, twyble [v.r. twibil], picoys. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 505/1 Twybyl, or mattoke, marra,..ligo. 1555 T. Phaer æneid ii. E iv, The plowmen with their axes strong..and twibles tall. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 11 b, Iron hookes, Iron forkes, Twybilles, Dongforkes. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. xviii. 77 She learn'd the churlish ax and twybill to prepare, To steel the coulter's edge. 1687 M. Taubman London's Tri. 7 Miners..bearing Spades, Pickaxes, Twibbles and Crows, fit to sink Shafts, and make Addits. 1898 N. & Q. 9th Ser. I. 243/2 [Given as a Devonshire name for ‘a two-billed pick’.] |
b. A reaping-hook used in cutting beans and peas; a pea-hook. dial.
| 1763 Museum Rust. I. lxii. 263 The regularity with which these beans are sown, makes it much easier to cut them with the twibil and hink, than if they were sown at random. Ibid. lxiii. 266 Each labourer had in his right hand a cutting instrument called a twibil, and in his left a sort of hook called a hink. 1796 J. Boys Agric. Kent 91 It [canary seed] is cut in the harvest..with a hook, called a twibil, and a hink. 1887 Kentish Gloss., Twibil (twei·bil), a hook for cutting beans. |
† c. See quot. Obs. rare—0.
| 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Twivill, an Iron-Tool us'd by Paviers. |
3. A double-bladed battle-axe or bill. poet. arch.
In quot. 1678 app. a halberd carried by a constable of the watch.
| 1558 T. Phaer æneid ii. E ij, Him self in hand..a twyble great doth bryng. 1565 Golding Ovid's Met. iv. 28 Lycurgus with his twibill sharpe. c 1611 Chapman Iliad xv. 656 Sharpe axes, twibils, two-hand swords, and speares with two heads borne, Were then the weapons. 1678 Jovialists Coronat. 3 in Loyal Garland D viij, If..a Halberdly train, Or a Constable chance to rebel, And would with his twyvels maliciously swell And against the Kings party raise Arms. 1834 J. R. Planché Brit. Costume 31 They [Anglo-Saxons] had also axes with long handles which they called bills,..and the double-axe or bipennis (twy-bill). 1865 Kingsley Herew. xix, A little fair-haired man..who heaved up a long twybill, or double axe. 1876 Morris Sigurd i. 68 He bore a mighty twi-bill as he waded the fight-sheaves through. |