▪ I. axe, ax, n.1
(æks)
Forms: 1 acas, äx, eax, 2 æx, 3 eax, (echze), 5 ex(e, (6 Sc. aix), 2– ax, 5– axe; pl. axes.
[Common Teutonic: OE. æx (acs), str. fem. for earlier *aces, *acus, Northumb. acas, cogn. with OS. akus (MDu. akes, Du. aaks), OHG. acchus (MHG. ackes, mod.G. ax, axt), ON. öx (gen. axar), Goth. aqizi; akin to Gr. ἀξίνη, and prob. to L. ascia. The spelling ax is better on every ground, of etymology, phonology, and analogy, than axe, which became prevalent during the 19th century; but it is now disused in Britain.]
1. A tool or instrument for hewing, cleaving, or chopping, trees, wood, ice, etc.; consisting of a squarish head, now usually of iron with a steel edge or blade, fixed by means of a socket upon a handle or helve of wood, so as to be wielded with force in striking. Also called, especially when of smaller or lighter make, a hatchet.
In ancient times axes were also made of bronze or stone (see 4), and might have the head and handle in one piece, as coal-axes and other special forms still have.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. iii. 10 Eallunga ys seo æx to þæra treowa wurtrumum asett. [Lindisf. Acas, Rushw. axe]. c 1160 Hatton G. ibid., Syo æx. c 1230 Ancr. R. 128 Aȝein þe cul of þer eax. Ibid. 98 (C.) Wudemonnes echze. a 1250 Owl & Night. 658 Hong up thin ax. 1297 R. Glouc. 490 A kene ax him sulf he huld. 1382 Wyclif Isa. x. 15 Whether shal glorien the ax aȝen hym that hewith with it. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. clxii. (1495) 709 Cloue with an axe other wyth a sawe. a 1550 Christis Kirk Gr. xxiii, Dik with ane aix Cam furth to fell a fuddir. 1611 Bible Judg. ix. 48 Abimelech tooke an axe..and cut downe a bough. 1799 J. Robertson Agric. Perth. 239 The bark was never allowed to be taken off below the ax, or the place where the tree was cut. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. §11. 79 Driving the iron claws of our boots into the scars [in the ice] made by the axe. 1877 Bryant Song of Sower iv, Whose sounding axes gleam Beside the lonely forest-stream. 1884 Scotsman 4 July 5/1 The silver axe..recently presented to Mr. Gladstone by ‘a few admiring friends.’ |
b. brick-axe, hammer-axe, pick-axe, q.v.
c. the axe (fig.): the cutting down of expenditure in the public services. Also in other extended uses, esp. the dismissal of an employee.
| 1922 Glasgow Herald 5 Oct. 7 Another class of military officers for some of whom assistance..may be needed are those who are the unhappy victims of the Geddes economy ‘axe’. 1923 Times 16 Mar. 12/1 Army and the ‘axe’. Limit of safety reached... No fewer than 1,500 officers had fallen before the Geddes axe. 1958 Economist 1 Nov. 390/1 Capital formation should never again become the first candidate for the axe when times for restraint recur. |
2. In olden warfare: A battle-axe.
| 1205 Lay. 2263 He lædde on his exle ane muchele wi-eax. 1375 Barbour Bruce xii. 20 [Bruce] raid..with ane ax in hande. a 1400 Cov. Myst. (1841) 270 With exys, gleyvis, and swerdys bryth. c 1400 Destr. Troy v. 1588 Armurers and arowsmythes with axes of werre. 1725 Pope Odyss. iii. 561 The ax was held by warlike Thrasymed. 1774 Johnson West. Isl. Wks. X. 457 The Lochaber ax is only a slight alteration of the old English bill. 1869 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1874) III. xv. 463 The iron mace of the Bastard, the one weapon fit to meet..with the two-handed axe of Harold. 1874 Boutell Arms & Arm. vi. 91. |
3. The headsman's axe used to decapitate condemned traitors. Hence fig. execution.
| 1450 W. Somner in Four C. Eng. Lett. 4 Ther was an exe, and a stoke, and oon of the lewdeste of the shippe badde him ley down his hedde. 1551 Edw. VI. Lit. Rem. (1858) II. 374 And so departed without the ax of the Toure. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iv. ii. 56 You sirrah, prouide your blocke and your Axe. 1719 Young Revenge iv. i, A third..Gave to the cruel ax a darling son. 1752 Hume Ess. & Treat. (1777) II. 96 From the operation of the ax or wheel. |
4. In Archæol. (see quot.).
| 1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) I. vi. 192 The name of axe is applied to the double-edged stone implements, and to those of a wedge shape, which have the aperture for inserting the handle near the broad end. 1877 Greenwell Brit. Barrows 136 A small polished green-stone axe. |
5. A musical instrument; formerly esp. a saxophone, now usu. a guitar. slang (chiefly Jazz and Rock Music).
| 1955 L. Feather Encycl. Jazz (1956) 345 Ax, axe, horn, instrument (usually saxophone). 1956 O. Duke Sideman ii. 25 You wanta make it with me tonight? Bring your ax, man, blow some. 1962 ‘E. McBain’ Like Love vii. 100 The musical jargon of Hip..‘he peddled the ax to buy the junk, so now he can't blow anyway.’ 1967 Melody Maker 23 Dec. 8/5 ‘For Pete's sake Ali you're on now, this minute{ddd}’ ‘Listen, man. Don't have my axe, man.’ 1969 Rolling Stone 17 May 8/4 While Keith bashes madly on the drums,..Pete Townsend disposes of his axe with good natured dispatch. 1976 New Musical Express 12 Feb. 37/3 There's not the slightest hint of killer axe interplay or dazzling musical cut and thrust. 1982 Sounds 11 Dec., As a flashing axe, it takes some beating. |
6. phrases. a. to put the axe in the helve: to solve a doubt, to find out a puzzle. to send the axe after the helve (= the better to send the helve after the hatchet). to have axes to grind (orig. U.S. politics): to have private ends to serve [in reference to a story told by Franklin]; now more commonly to have an axe to grind.
| c 1450 Lonelich Grail xxviii. 410 Ȝit cowde he not putten the ex in þe helve. 1547 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 80 Here I sende thaxe after the helue awaie. 1815 C. Miner Who'll turn Grindstones? When I see a merchant over-polite to his customers..thinks I, that man has an axe to grind. 1865 Holland Plain T. v. 188 Little cliques and cabals composed of men who have axes to grind. 1881 Daily Tel. 8 June 6/2 The hands..that ‘grind the axe,’ and that ‘pull the strings.’ 1922 Joyce Ulysses 624 Skin-the-Goat..evidently with an axe to grind, was airing his grievances. 1939 G. B. Shaw Geneva ii. p. 30 Distinguished statesmen of different nations..each with a national axe to grind. |
7. Comb. a. attrib., as axe-edge, axe-handle, axe-head, axe-shaft; axe-man, ax-stone, ax-fitch, -seed, -wort, q.v. b. Also axe-form, axe-like, axe-shaped, etc.
| 1865 Swinburne Chastelard v. ii. 202 Suppose my mouth The axe-edge to bite so sweet a throat in twain. 1865 Lubbock Preh. Times 132 In some places these horn axe-handles are numerous. 1611 Bible 2 Kings vi. 5 The axe head [Coverd. the yron] fell into the water. 1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) I. vi. 184 Stone celts—and axe heads—made of hard greenstone. 1815 Scott Ld. of Isles vi. xv, The axe-shaft, with its brazen clasp. 1847 Tennyson Princ. ii. 186 An iron will, An axe-like edge unturnable. |
c. axe-adze, a double-bladed tool, consisting of an axe and adze combined; axe-breaker Austral., name given to a tree Notelæa longifolia; axe-grinding vbl. n., having private ends to serve (see sense 5); also axe-grinder; axe-hammer, a tool consisting of an axe and hammer combined; cf. hammer-axe.
| 1925 V. G. Childe Dawn Europ. Civilization ii. 34 From Early Minoan II the Cretans knew a curious implement with one blade parallel and the other at right angles to the shaft, called an ‘*axe-adze’. 1928 C. Dawson Age of Gods xii. 268 The type known as an ‘axe-adze’, with its blades set transversely to one another, which is probably the model of the Nordic battle-axe. |
| 1884 A. Nilson Timber Trees N.S.W. 133 *Axebreaker. 1889 J. H. Maiden Useful Native Plants 579 (Morris), Axe-breaker. Wood hard, close-grained and firm. |
| 1884 G. Dolby Dickens viii. 227 Willard's Hotel..with its clientèle of bar-loafers, swaggerers, drunkards, and ‘*axe-grinders’ (a class of politician peculiar to Washington hotels). 1909 Ware Passing English 12/2 Axe-grinders (American). Men who grumble, especially political. 1916 E. V. Lucas Vermilion Box lii. 57, I have known many journalists, but hardly one who was not either a cynic or an axe-grinder, or both. |
| 1865 Sala My Diary I. 421 ‘*Axe-grinding’ is a term borrowed from one of the most charming stories told by the great apologist of shrewd common-sense, Benjamin Franklin. 1942 Sphere 27 June 409/2 Criticisms in the House of Commons and the newspapers are based largely on ignorance or axe-grinding. |
| 1681 New Castle Court Rec. 476 (D.A.E.), Hee would beat him out with the *ax hammer. 1928 Peake & Fleure Steppe & Sown ii. 20 They used as their distinctive weapon a perforated axe-hammer of stone. 1950 H. L. Lorimer Homer & Monum. iv. 122 The bronze axe-hammer from Delphi may also come thence. |
▪ II. † axe, n.2 Obs.
[a. F. axe, ad. L. axis.]
Byform of axis.
| 1551 [see ax-tree 3]. 1570 Billingsley Euclid ii. def. 15. 317 A sphere..may haue infinite diameters, but it can haue but onely one axe. 1752 Bevis in Phil. Trans. XLVIII. 388 The inclination of the earth's axe. 1796 Hutton Math. Dict. I. 178 The chief properties of the Axe-in-peritrochio. |
▪ III. axe, ax, v.
(æks)
[f. axe n.1]
1. trans. To shape or trim with an axe.
| 1677 Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 246 To Ax the Brick off, with an Ax that is exactly streight on the edge. 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 389 The..stretchers in returns, which are not axed, are dressed upon the rubbing-stone. |
2. To remove (officials, etc.) to save expenditure; to cut down (expenditure, etc.) by means of ‘the axe’.
| 1922 Glasgow Herald 5 Oct. 7, The ‘axed’ officer. 1923 Hansard Commons CLXI. 1832 Fifteen hundred officers have been axed under the Geddes recommendation. Ibid. 1852 It is partly due to axing. 1923 Daily Mail 28 June 10 Lord Inchcape, the chairman of the Committee which recently ‘axed’ the expenditure of the Services in India. |
▪ IV. axe
obs. or dial. form of ask. See also ax.