AXE

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does axe mean? 

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

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

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

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

1. chop or split with an ax

2. terminate

  Familiarity information: AXE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AXE (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 ("axe" 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 "axe"):

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 "axe"):

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:

axe (chop or split with an ax)

• AXE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they axe    ... 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 "axe" is one way to...):

chop; hack (cut with a hacking tool)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

They axe the trees

Derivation:

axe (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 "axe" is one way to...):

end; terminate (bring to an end or halt)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

"My axe may be of service to her; so I also will go with her to the Land of the South."

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

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)

It was not the axe, however, but a branch which he had fastened to a withered tree which the wind was blowing backwards and forwards.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

From each man's girdle hung sword or axe, according to his humor, and over the right hip there jutted out the leathern quiver with its bristle of goose, pigeon, and peacock feathers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Poole swung the axe over his shoulder; the blow shook the building, and the red baize door leaped against the lock and hinges.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The doctor, with the pick-axe, demolished one of them, and then we all got aboard the other and set out to go round by sea for North Inlet.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

All of these bodies have small tilts with respect to their axes of rotation, so their poles are extremely cold and peppered with persistently shadowed craters.

(Where is the Ice on Ceres?, NASA)

Unlike Earth, the spin axes of Mercury and the Moon are oriented such that, in their polar regions, the Sun never rises high above the horizon.

(The Moon and Mercury May Have Thick Ice Deposits, NASA)

The study shows that gastruloids organise themselves with regard to the three main body axes, as they do in embryos, and follow similar patterns of gene expression.

(Scientists develop mouse ‘embryo-like structures’ with organisation along body’s major axes, University of Cambridge)

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)