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 byto ).
to hew to the tenets of one's political party.
to strike (something, esp wood) with cutting blows, as with an axe
to shape or carve from a substance
(tr; often foll by away, down, from, off, etc) to sever from a larger or another portion
to conform (to a code, principle, etc)
See cut.
First recorded before 900; Middle English hewen, Old English hēawan; cognate with German hauen, Old Norse hǫggva; akin to haggle
If you're a lumberjack, the word hew is nothing new. You hew things every day with one swift swing of the axe, chopping and shaping wood. It's said that Paul Bunyan hewed the Grand Canyon by dragging his giant mythical axe behind him. But usually things are hewn with a little more purpose — with each chop and cut designed to shape, sculpt, or craft a final product. Take the axe out of the picture though, and this word takes on a different meaning. If you're trying to adhere to rules, stick to a budget, or conform to a certain tradition, you can use hew, too.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Bass Rock was bought by Sir Hew Dalrymple in 1706.
From BBC • Jun. 9, 2026
Sam Dalrymple has real Raj pedigree, his paternal grandfather being Hew Hamilton-Dalrymple, the aide-de-camp to Frank Messervy, the first commander in chief of the army of independent Pakistan.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 30, 2026
References to Schrodinger’s cat, the thought experiment about the unseen feline in the box, abound: In a messy relationship with Hew, Helen is in “Shrodinger’s wedlock.”
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 7, 2023
The autopsy states that the death of Charles Hew Crooks, 23, was likely the result of falling from the back of the plane while vomiting, The News & Observer reported.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 1, 2022
The first off was Lang Heo Hew, unchanged, of course, precisely as I had last seen her, three years ago in my life and a couple of weeks in hers.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
