Library / English Dictionary

AX

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Synonyms:

ax; axe

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Terminate

Example:

The NSF axed the research program and stopped funding it

Synonyms:

ax; axe

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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

end; terminate (bring to an end or halt)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Chop or split with an ax

Example:

axe wood

Synonyms:

ax; axe

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

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)

Credits

 Context examples: 

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)

He would stand off at a little distance and look on, while stones, clubs, axes, and all sorts of weapons fell upon his fellows.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Godfrey read it, and fell back in a chair as if he had been pole-axed.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Some efforts were even then being made, to cut this portion of the wreck away; for, as the ship, which was broadside on, turned towards us in her rolling, I plainly descried her people at work with axes, especially one active figure with long curling hair, conspicuous among the rest.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“Captain Smollett, sir, axing to speak with you,” said he.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I had no occasion of bribing, flattering, or pimping, to procure the favour of any great man, or of his minion; I wanted no fence against fraud or oppression: here was neither physician to destroy my body, nor lawyer to ruin my fortune; no informer to watch my words and actions, or forge accusations against me for hire: here were no gibers, censurers, backbiters, pickpockets, highwaymen, housebreakers, attorneys, bawds, buffoons, gamesters, politicians, wits, splenetics, tedious talkers, controvertists, ravishers, murderers, robbers, virtuosos; no leaders, or followers, of party and faction; no encouragers to vice, by seducement or examples; no dungeon, axes, gibbets, whipping-posts, or pillories; no cheating shopkeepers or mechanics; no pride, vanity, or affectation; no fops, bullies, drunkards, strolling whores, or poxes; no ranting, lewd, expensive wives; no stupid, proud pedants; no importunate, overbearing, quarrelsome, noisy, roaring, empty, conceited, swearing companions; no scoundrels raised from the dust upon the merit of their vices, or nobility thrown into it on account of their virtues; no lords, fiddlers, judges, or dancing-masters.

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

This body plan has spatial references, or axes, that guide the emergence of tissues and organs: an antero-posterior axis defined by the head at one end and the tail at the other, an orthogonal dorso-ventral axis and a medio-lateral axis, which orientates the arrangement of internal organs like the liver, pancreas or the heart.

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

Ax your pardon, sir, returned one of the men; you're pretty free with some of the rules; maybe you'll kindly keep an eye upon the rest.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)