Noun
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.
An agricultural hand tool often with a curved or hooked end to the blade used for pruning or cutting thick, woody plants.
- Examples
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More examples (2)
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.
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.
A part of the knotting mechanism in a reaper-binder or baler (agricultural machinery).
Usage- Literary
- often
- as bill-hook
Verb
To use a billhook.
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More examples (1)
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.
Noun
a cutting tool with a sharp edge
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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he used a bill to prune branches off of the tree