ice pick
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of ice pick
First recorded in 1860–65
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
If we encounter any ice, we have an ice pick or sledgehammer.
From Slate • Feb. 24, 2026
Tariq recalls a colleague poking fun at his bald spot during a shopping trip, and describing that as "like an ice pick to my heart".
From BBC • Oct. 31, 2025
In June 1975, Angela Davis wrote about an incarcerated Black woman, Joan Little, who killed a white prison guard in North Carolina with the ice pick he brought into her cell.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 8, 2023
Scientists have observed wild cockatoos, members of the parrot family, crafting the equivalent of a crowbar, an ice pick, and a spoon to pry open one of their favorite fruits.
From Science Magazine • Aug. 31, 2021
A trocar being a sheathed sort of ice pick instrument you stab into the bellies of foundering ruminants to let out the deadly gases.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
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.
