hew
to strike forcibly with an ax, sword, or other cutting instrument; chop; hack.
to make, shape, smooth, etc., with cutting blows: to hew a passage through the crowd; to hew a statue from marble.
to sever (a part) from a whole by means of cutting blows (usually followed by away, off, out, from, etc.): to hew branches from the tree.
to cut down; fell: to hew wood; trees hewed down by the storm.
to strike with cutting blows; cut: He hewed more vigorously each time.
to uphold, follow closely, or conform (usually followed by to): to hew to the tenets of one's political party.
Origin of hew
1synonym study For hew
Other words for hew
Other words from hew
- hew·a·ble, adjective
- hewer, noun
- un·hew·a·ble, adjective
- un·hewed, adjective
Words that may be confused with hew
- hew , hue
Other definitions for HEW (2 of 2)
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use hew in a sentence
Mostly, the night hewed to its mission: attending to burgeoning design houses.
CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards Honor the Next Big Designers | Robin Givhan | November 15, 2011 | THE DAILY BEASTMore than a few of them would likely join the opposition for a choice whose views hewed too closely to the man being replaced.
He was a mighty woodsman now, and could make a spray of chips fly around him as he hewed his way through the trunk of spruce-tree.
The First Christmas Tree | Henry Van DykeI sat on a rude wooden bench of newly-hewed wood, lit my pipe again without interference.
Valley of the Croen | Lee TarbellThe long Frankish swords hewed down the Ismaelians before their short cimeters could strike.
God Wills It! | William Stearns Davis
Once at least he was compelled to hang downwards by his toes while he hewed steps beneath him in a perpendicular wall of ice.
Later on, a sheep's carcass (very thin) is thrown down and hewed up with a bill-hook.
In the Ranks of the C.I.V. | Erskine Childers
British Dictionary definitions for hew (1 of 2)
/ (hjuː) /
to strike (something, esp wood) with cutting blows, as with an axe
(tr often foll by out) to shape or carve from a substance
(tr; often foll by away, down, from, off, etc) to sever from a larger or another portion
(intr often foll by to) US and Canadian to conform (to a code, principle, etc)
Origin of hew
1Derived forms of hew
- hewer, noun
British Dictionary definitions for HEW (2 of 2)
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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