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axe
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
axe
I.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
ice
▪ Straps/attachment points: ice axe loop and snap.
▪ He urged mountain users to be properly equipped, saying crampons and an ice axe were essential.
▪ A full rack should be taken and ice axes and crampons may be needed up to about August.
▪ Carrying an ice axe is, however, a wise precaution.
▪ Using his one good hand, he inched down to Angerer and with his ice axe cut him loose.
▪ Straps/attachment points: two lashing patches on lid; no ice axe loop.
▪ After all, the last political figure to receive an ice axe, was assassinated with it!
▪ If this fails to stop you being pulled off, get straight into the ice axe arrest position.
■ VERB
swing
▪ Manager Lennie Lawrence will swing the axe at Swindon and demand 90-minute commitment.
▪ He imagines himself somewhere else, far away from here, walking through the woods and swinging an axe over his shoulder.
▪ No need to swing the axe here, just slot the picks on to the cracks between the welded icicles.
▪ Bowring's control broke, and he swung the axe toward the unbearable sight of the grinning face.
▪ He rides a massive chariot pulled by three wolves, and swings his mighty axe Elf-Biter.
▪ It is the same as swinging an axe to chop down a tree.
▪ I started swinging the axe at the lumps of driftwood.
use
▪ Get axe. 14. Use the axe to chop down the tree on the scarecrow screen. 15.
▪ A jealous husband using an axe on his wife.
▪ Male speaker Neolithic man would have used an axe to cut the trees.
wield
▪ I should prefer to watch him in the primeval forests of his native land, wielding an axe against some giant tree.
▪ People who wielded axes and carving knives.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A dozen men and women clad in furs were polishing axes and broadswords monotonously, mindlessly.
▪ Attractive young women fanned him as he simultaneously read, wrote, waved an axe and held a flower aloft.
▪ Her brother Arijs was an axe murderer.
▪ In Crete, we also find the double axe engraved on stalactite columns in caves.
▪ Suppose now that we wish to search the database for axes similar in shape to some given axe.
▪ The strong hand of Skeggi, still half-laid on his axe.
▪ When they returned each carried a handful of small axes.
II.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
job
▪ The company has axed 3,600 jobs this year.
▪ Michelin is axing 16,000 jobs and has spent £460m on restructuring in the last two years.
▪ The company has now axed more than 2,000 jobs in the last 18 months following a dramatic sales slump.
▪ Northern Foods is axing 3,000 jobs and closing smaller factories in order to cut group costs.
▪ This led to companies like Dupont axing 189,000 jobs on a global basis.
▪ The company is planning to axe 15,000 more jobs in the next two years.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And there was almost a mass brawl 10 minutes before the break after Mark Robson was axed by Gianfranco Parlato.
▪ Boro striker Bernie Slaven looked angry before the kick-off after he was axed.
▪ But axing Julia won't save the revamped News At Ten.
▪ Ironically, he was axed less than three weeks before Boro's first Wembley appearance.
▪ More than 9,000 staff have been axed and about another 11,000 have departed in businesses sold off.
▪ Now his firm has been axed from school duties in Swansea and faces prosecution.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Axe

Axe \Axe\, Axeman \Axe"man\, etc. See Ax, Axman.

Axe

Ax \Ax\, Axe \Axe\, ([a^]ks), n. [OE. ax, axe, AS. eax, [ae]x, acas; akin to D. akse, OS. accus, OHG. acchus, G. axt, Icel. ["o]x, ["o]xi, Sw. yxe, Dan. ["o]kse, Goth. aqizi, Gr. 'axi`nh, L. ascia; not akin to E. acute.] A tool or instrument of steel, or of iron with a steel edge or blade, for felling trees, chopping and splitting wood, hewing timber, etc. It is wielded by a wooden helve or handle, so fixed in a socket or eye as to be in the same plane with the blade. The broadax, or carpenter's ax, is an ax for hewing timber, made heavier than the chopping ax, and with a broader and thinner blade and a shorter handle.

Note: The ancient battle-ax had sometimes a double edge.

Note: The word is used adjectively or in combination; as, axhead or ax head; ax helve; ax handle; ax shaft; ax-shaped; axlike.

Note: This word was originally spelt with e, axe; and so also was nearly every corresponding word of one syllable: as, flaxe, taxe, waxe, sixe, mixe, pixe, oxe, fluxe, etc. This superfluous e is not dropped; so that, in more than a hundred words ending in x, no one thinks of retaining the e except in axe. Analogy requires its exclusion here.

Note: ``The spelling ax is better on every ground, of etymology, phonology, and analogy, than axe, which has of late become prevalent.''
--New English Dict. (Murray).

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
axe

1670s, "to shape or cut with an axe," from axe (n.). Meaning "to remove, severely reduce," usually figurative, recorded by 1922. Related: Axed; axing.

axe

Old English æces (Northumbrian acas) "axe, pickaxe, hatchet," later æx, from Proto-Germanic *akusjo (cognates: Old Saxon accus, Old Norse ex, Old Frisian axe, German Axt, Gothic aqizi), from PIE *agw(e)si- (cognates: Greek axine, Latin ascia).\n\nThe 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. [OED]\n

\n\n
\nThe spelling ax, though "better on every ground, of etymology, phonology, & analogy" (OED), is so strange to 20th-c. eyes that it suggests pedantry & is unlikely to be restored.

[Fowler]

\nMeaning "musical instrument" is 1955, originally jazz slang for the saxophone; rock slang for "guitar" dates to 1967. The axe in figurative sense of cutting of anything (expenses, workers, etc.), especially as a cost-saving measure, is from 1922, probably from the notion of the headman's literal axe (itself attested from mid-15c.). To have an axe to grind is from an 1815 essay by U.S. editor and politician Charles Miner (1780-1865) in which a man flatters a boy and gets him to do the chore of axe-grinding for him, then leaves without offering thanks or recompense. Misattributed to Benjamin Franklin in Weekley, OED print edition, and many other sources.
Wiktionary
axe

Etymology 1 alt. 1 A tool for felling trees or chopping wood etc. consisting of a heavy head flattened to a blade on one side, and a handle attached to it. 2 An ancient weapon consisting of a head that has one or two blades and a long handle. 3 (context informal English) A dismissal or rejection. 4 (context slang music English) A gig musician's particular instrument, especially a guitar in rock music or a saxophone in jazz. 5 (context finance English) A directional position or interest, by a dealer in a financial market – if one wishes to unload stock, one is “axed to sell” or “has an axe”., Risk magazine Derived from “have an axe to grind”, which is also used. n. 1 A tool for felling trees or chopping wood etc. consisting of a heavy head flattened to a blade on one side, and a handle attached to it. 2 An ancient weapon consisting of a head that has one or two blades and a long handle. 3 (context informal English) A dismissal or rejection. 4 (context slang music English) A gig musician's particular instrument, especially a guitar in rock music or a saxophone in jazz. 5 (context finance English) A directional position or interest, by a dealer in a financial market – if one wishes to unload stock, one is “axed to sell” or “has an axe”., Risk magazine Derived from “have an axe to grind”, which is also used. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To fell or chop with an axe. 2 (context transitive English) To terminate or reduce tremendously in a rough or ruthless manner. 3 (context transitive English) To lay off: to terminate a person's employment Etymology 2

alt. (context archaic English) The axle of a wheel. n. (context archaic English) The axle of a wheel. vb. To furnish with an axle. Etymology 3

vb. (context obsolete or dialectal English) (alternative form of ask English)

WordNet
axe

n. an edge tool with a heavy bladed head mounted across a handle [syn: ax]

axe
  1. v. chop or split with an ax; "axe wood" [syn: ax]

  2. terminate; "The NSF axed the research program and stopped funding it" [syn: ax]

Gazetteer
Wikipedia
Axe (band)

Axe is a hard rock band from Texas, USA, formed in 1979.

Axe (disambiguation)

An axe (or ax) is a tool with a metal blade, commonly used to split wood, also historically used as a weapon.

Axe or ax may also refer to:

Axe (brand)

Axe (known as Lynx in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and People's Republic of China) is a brand of male grooming products, owned by the Anglo- Dutch company Unilever and marketed towards the young male demographic.

Axe (film)

Axe (original title: Lisa, Lisa; released theatrically as California Axe Massacre) is a 1974 American exploitation horror film written and directed by Frederick R. Friedel and starring Leslie Lee. The film is one of the infamous " video nasties" that was banned in the United Kingdom in the early 1980s.

Axé (music)

Axé is a popular music genre originating in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil approximately in 1986, fusing different Afro-Caribbean genres, such as Marcha, Reggae, and Calypso. It also includes influences of Brazilian music such as Frevo, Forró and Carixada. The most important creator of this music style was Alfredo Moura, conducting Carlinhos Brown, Luiz Caldas, Sarajane and others. The word " axé" comes from a Yoruba religious greeting used in the Candomblé and Umbanda religions that means "soul", "light", "spirit" or "good vibration".

Axe

An axe (in American English also spelled ax) is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood; to harvest timber; as a weapon; and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The axe has many forms and specialised uses but generally consists of an axe head with a handle, or helve.

Before the modern axe, the stone-age hand axe was used from 1.5 million years BP without a handle. It was later fastened to a wooden handle. The earliest examples of handled axes have heads of stone with some form of wooden handle attached ( hafted) in a method to suit the available materials and use. Axes made of copper, bronze, iron, and steel appeared as these technologies developed. Axes are usually composed of a head and a handle.

The axe is an example of a simple machine, as it is a type of wedge, or dual inclined plane. This reduces the effort needed by the wood chopper. It splits the wood into two parts by the pressure concentration at the blade. The handle of the axe also acts as a lever allowing the user to increase the force at the cutting edge—not using the full length of the handle is known as choking the axe. For fine chopping using a side axe this sometimes is a positive effect, but for felling with a double bitted axe it reduces efficiency.

Generally, cutting axes have a shallow wedge angle, whereas splitting axes have a deeper angle. Most axes are double bevelled, i.e. symmetrical about the axis of the blade, but some specialist broadaxes have a single bevel blade, and usually an offset handle that allows them to be used for finishing work without putting the user's knuckles at risk of injury. Less common today, they were once an integral part of a joiner and carpenter's tool kit, not just a tool for use in forestry. A tool of similar origin is the billhook. However, in France and Holland the billhook often replaced the axe as a joiner's bench tool.

Most modern axes have steel heads and wooden handles, typically hickory in the US and ash in Europe, although plastic or fibreglass handles are also common. Modern axes are specialised by use, size, and form. Hafted axes with short handles designed for use with one hand are often called hand axes but the term hand axe refers to axes without handles as well. Hatchets tend to be small hafted axes often with a hammer on the back side (the poll). As easy-to-make weapons, axes have frequently been used in combat.

Usage examples of "axe".

The other two aborigines, their luminous eyes aglow, drew their own axes from the back-sheaths and slipped away.

One man, using a chert adze and axe, was building a short-legged bamboo bed.

The explorers had made their voyages, planted their colonists in the West, left their sons, their axes, and their carved runes in Alata and retreated from it, leaving only legends in the land that was not for them.

As a result of this, Herminis ended up at the Avenging Axe and Lisutaris prevailed on me to help hide her from the authorities.

I cares about the two young lads we axed, about Makareta, my unborn child, Hawk, even Mary!

The only relief was a pair of crossed golden axes embroidered across his left breast.

He clenched his right hand into a fist above the golden axes on his left breast in the traditional salute of the Axe-Wielders and bowed low before Priam.

Axis bowed slightly to Jayme and Moryson, his right fist clenched over the golden axes on his breast, then he strode from the room, his boot heels clicking sharply on the stone floor.

More men than usual made a prominent display of weapon practice with their axes as the cooks hurried to prepare the evening meal.

All three turned to look for their axes, but the ground was heaving and buckling even more violently and their axes had completely disappeared underneath the loose covering of leaves and pines needles that littered the surface.

For a few heartbeats longer they stood, swords in hand, chests heaving as they fought to recover their breath, watching the ground where their axes had disappeared, hardly able to comprehend what had happened.

Whyso it is saidone day Axemen five thousand strong surrounded the Woods with their axes and tried to cut their way through.

The unspoken thought passed between themwhy had the Woods taken the axes yet let the men live to reach the Keep?

He had recognised the black uniform emblazoned with the twin axes as soon as the man had stepped into the cellar.

Your people have murdered with their axes most of the once great Avarinheim as they once murdered the Icarii and Avar.