adze

American  

[adz] / ædz /

Or adz

noun

1. an axlike tool, for dressing timbers roughly, with a curved, chisel-like steel head mounted at a right angle to the wooden handle.

---

verb (used with object)

adzed, adzing

1. to dress or shape (wood) with an adze.

adze British  

/ ædz /

noun

1. a heavy hand tool with a steel cutting blade attached at right angles to a wooden handle, used for dressing timber

---

Etymology

Origin of adze

First recorded before 900; Middle English ad(e)se, Old English adesa; of obscure origin

Explanation

An adze is an old-fashioned kind of ax or hatchet, used to carve wood. The very oldest adze blades were made of stone. Way back in ancient Egypt, an adze's stone blade was tied to its wooden handle. When metal blades replaced the stone ones, they were usually fitted into notches in the handle of the adze. These ax-like tools are still used today — their curved shape, with blades perpendicular to the handles, lends itself well to woodworking.

Example Sentences

It’s as if she’s been carved like an archetypal totem, but with matte and glossy house paint, charcoal and oil paint on canvas rather than with a chisel or an adze from stone or wood.

From Los Angeles Times • May 31, 2022

Holm showed Jackson, using his own adze that he had made from yew wood, with a thin handle that flexed.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 24, 2020

A wooden keel was shown with men of the adze and the plane.

From Slate • Jun. 20, 2020

They’ve also found ample evidence of prehistoric carpentry: stone adzes, other woodworking tools, and even part of a pine log smoothed with an adze.

From Science Magazine • Apr. 25, 2018

“I have only a saw, hammer, chisel, and adze, but we are managing alright,” he reported in his diary.

From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong

Related Words

• blade
• knife