edge-tool, edged tool
In early use, Any implement with a sharp cutting edge, as a knife or sword; now (in lit. sense) restricted to industrial tools, and technically denoting chiefly chisels, gouges, planes, etc., also (with defining adj. heavy) axes, hatchets, etc. Also attrib. (The form edged tools is now used only in fig. sense.)
| c 1350 Will. Palerne 3755 And ȝif any egge tol wol entre in-to his bodi I wol do him to þe deth. c 1430 Lydg. Bochas ii. v. (1554) 47 b/1 Leuer I haue, with some edge tole Too slea my selfe, than liue in slaundre and dole. 1548 Act 2 & 3 Edw. VI, xxvii, The greatest part of edged Tools, Weapons, and other necessary things having Edges. 1677 Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 167 An Edge-Tool..will..cut off all the parts. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (1840) II. v. 108 Nor had they any edged tool. 1723 Lond. Gaz. No. 6175/6 Robert Wilkins..Edge Tool maker. 1732 Berkeley Alciphr. vi. §8 Edged tools are in general designed to cut. 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic App. 771 To make Edge-tools with cast Steel and Iron. 1886 Daily News 18 Oct. 5/5 The saw and edge-tool houses are doing moderately well. |
2. fig. and in proverbial use. esp. in phrase play or jest with edge tools.
| 1579 Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 57 Some say that it is not good iesting with edge toles. 1622 Massinger, etc. Old Law v. i, If you move the duke's patience, 'tis an edge-tool. 1767 Wesley Jrnl. 4 May, They find it is playing with edged tools. 1798 Hutton Autobiogr. 27 The man who plays with edge-tools, may, by chance, cut his fingers. 1815 Scott Guy M. v, I begin to think..I have been rather jesting with edge-tools. 1866 Mill in Edin. Rev. CXXIII. 337 He came to think that the Sokratic cross-examination is a dangerous edge-tool. |