AX (axes)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ax mean? 

• AX (noun)
  The noun AX has 1 sense:

1. an edge tool with a heavy bladed head mounted across a handle

  Familiarity information: AX used as a noun is very rare.

• AX (verb)
  The verb AX has 2 senses:

1. chop or split with an ax

2. terminate

  Familiarity information: AX used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AX (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An edge tool with a heavy bladed head mounted across a handle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

ax; axe

Hypernyms ("ax" is a kind of...):

edge tool (any cutting tool with a sharp cutting edge (as a chisel or knife or plane or gouge))

Meronyms (parts of "ax"):

ax handle; axe handle (the handle of an ax)

ax head; axe head (the cutting head of an ax)

blade (the flat part of a tool or weapon that (usually) has a cutting edge)

haft; helve (the handle of a weapon or tool)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ax"):

broadax; broadaxe (a large ax with a broad cutting blade)

common ax; common axe; Dayton ax; Dayton axe (an ax with a long handle and a head that has one cutting edge and one blunt side)

double-bitted ax; double-bitted axe; Western ax; Western axe (an ax that has cutting edges on both sides of the head)

fireman's ax; fireman's axe (an ax that has a long handle and a head with one cutting edge and a point on the other side)

hatchet (a small ax with a short handle used with one hand (usually to chop wood))

ice ax; ice axe; piolet (an ax used by mountain climbers for cutting footholds in ice)

poleax; poleaxe (an ax used to slaughter cattle; has a hammer opposite the blade)

Derivation:

ax (chop or split with an ax)

• AX (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they ax    ... he / she / it axes
Past simple: axed   
Past participle: axed   
-ing form: axing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Chop or split with an ax

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

ax; axe

Context example:

axe wood

Hypernyms (to "ax" is one way to...):

chop; hack (cut with a hacking tool)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

They ax the trees

Derivation:

ax (an edge tool with a heavy bladed head mounted across a handle)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Terminate

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

ax; axe

Context example:

The NSF axed the research program and stopped funding it

Hypernyms (to "ax" is one way to...):

end; terminate (bring to an end or halt)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

Men were demolishing something with axes on the beach near the stockade—the poor jolly-boat, I afterwards discovered.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Exactly alike; incapable of being perceived as different; being the exact same one; coinciding exactly when superimposed; having properties with uniform values along all axes.

(Identical, NCI Thesaurus)

A drawing illustrating the relations between certain quantities plotted with reference to a set of axes.

(Graph, NCI Thesaurus)

“I ought to be pole-axed, I ought,” he cried in bitter repentance.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In the waist gathered the Southampton mariners, hairy and burly men, with their jerkins thrown off, their waists braced tight, swords, mallets, and pole-axes in their hands.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Giant as he was, the man must have gone down like a pole-axed ox before that terrific blow.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A form of ocular misalignment where the visual axes diverge inappropriately.

(Divergent Strabismus, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

An object that is comprised of six regular, solid, congruent square faces and has three equal axes at right angles to each other.

(Cube, NCI Thesaurus)

We drew them up, therefore, and concealed them among the bushes, blazing a tree with our axes, so that we should find them again.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They have a kind of hard flints, which, by grinding against other stones, they form into instruments, that serve instead of wedges, axes, and hammers.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)