Dictionary

billhook en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

Earliest use in weapon (and later, agricultural) sense, bill (“a bladed pike (obsolete)”) + hook; other senses formed anew from various meanings of bill.

Meanings

1. A medieval polearm, fitted to a long handle, sometimes with an L-shaped tine or a spike protruding from the side or the end of the blade for tackling the opponent; a bill.
2. An agricultural hand tool often with a curved or hooked end to the blade used for pruning or cutting thick, woody plants.
   • I worked very hard in the copse of young ash, with my billhook and a shearing-knife; cutting out the saplings where they stooled too close together, making spars to keep for thatching, wall-crooks to drive into the cob, stiles for close sheep hurdles, and handles for rakes, and hoes, and two-bills, of the larger and straighter stuff. 1869, Richard D. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, chapter 38:
   • With a small billhook he carefully freed the collar of the tree from twigs and patches of moss which incrusted it to a height of a foot or two above the ground, an operation comparable to the "little toilet" of the executioner's victim. 1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, “chapter 19”, in The Woodlanders […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
3. (as bill-hook, literary, often) A part of the knotting mechanism in a reaper-binder or baler (agricultural machinery).
4. (form-of, rare) Rare form of bill hook (“spiked hook used in shops for hanging papers”).
   form of bill hook
5. (form-of, rare) Rare form of bill hook (“sharply pointed spike on honeyguide hatchlings' mandibles”).
   form of bill hook

Forms

Descendants

bilwg · bileog

Relateds

brush hook · crowbill · hawkbill

Synonyms

vine hook · broom hook · hedging-bill · block hook · pruning hook · hedge bill · Yorkshire bill · hacker · handbill · hack · bill · hedging bill

Translations (63)

pt podão (agricultural implement) · no løvkniv (agricultural implement) · scn runca (agricultural implement) · fo krókaknívur (agricultural implement) · ga bileog (agricultural implement) · ta வீச்சரிவாள் (agricultural implement) · sh kosač (agricultural implement) · pt serpete (agricultural implement) · ko 나대 (agricultural implement) · mk сор (agricultural implement) · cmn 鍥 /锲 (agricultural implement) · es podón (agricultural implement) · scn rùncula (agricultural implement) · ko 낫 (agricultural implement) · cs kosíř (agricultural implement) · wa sårpea (agricultural implement) · mi perohuka (agricultural implement) · nl snoeimes (agricultural implement) · ota كسكی (agricultural implement) · tr tahra (agricultural implement) · sh kosir (agricultural implement) · sh косир (agricultural implement) · es corquete (agricultural implement) · sh косач (agricultural implement) · wa sårpete (agricultural implement) · sq kizë (agricultural implement) · grc κρώπιον (agricultural implement) · sq kadhë (agricultural implement) · grc βίσβη (agricultural implement) · mi pīhuka (agricultural implement) · eo serpo (agricultural implement) · az dəhrə (agricultural implement) · sq kmesë (agricultural implement) · de Hippe (agricultural implement) · it roncola (agricultural implement) · ja 鉈 (agricultural implement) · ota داس (agricultural implement) · fi vesuri (agricultural implement) · it roncolina (agricultural implement) · pl sierpak (agricultural implement) · sga fidbae (agricultural implement) · ru сека́ч (agricultural implement) · ga halbard (agricultural implement) · gl podón (agricultural implement) · sl krivec (agricultural implement) · ja 鉈鎌 (agricultural implement) · ga corrán (agricultural implement) · ca podall (agricultural implement) · fr serpette (agricultural implement) · cy bilwg (agricultural implement) · kmr das (agricultural implement) · ca falçó (agricultural implement) · fr serpe (agricultural implement) · wa courbet (agricultural implement) · sh секач (agricultural implement) · no lauvkniv (agricultural implement) · nrf sèrpe (agricultural implement) · fi kassara (agricultural implement) · wa fiermint (agricultural implement) · scn runculiḍḍa (agricultural implement) · wa såpe (agricultural implement) · sh sekač (agricultural implement) · nl hiep (agricultural implement)

billhook en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

Earliest use in weapon (and later, agricultural) sense, bill (“a bladed pike (obsolete)”) + hook; other senses formed anew from various meanings of bill.

Meanings

1. To use a billhook.
   • Toward the end of July, Vatanen took a forestry job. It meant billhooking and chopping excessive undergrowth from the woods on the sandy ridges around Kuhmo and living in a tent with an ever more faithful, almost full- grown hare. 2010, Arto Paasilinna, The Year of the Hare: A Novel:

Forms