adze
[adz]
- adz.
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adz
or adze
[adz]
- an axlike tool, for dressing timbers roughly, with a curved, chisellike steel head mounted at a right angle to the wooden handle.
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- to dress or shape (wood) with an adz.
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Origin of adz
before 900; Middle English ad(e)se, Old English adesa; *ad-es-, of obscure origin, appears to be formed like ax, and might by association with the latter have lost *w-; if so, < Germanic *wad-, cognate with Lithuanian vedegà adz
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for adze
Historical Examples
Let us see: Suppose an adze were handed to a carpenter for him to square a beam with it.
Foma GordyeffMaxim Gorky
Chipping it with an adze, and boring it with an augur, to ascertain its quality.
The Sailor's Word-BookWilliam Henry Smyth
Presently, Adze called out that he had made the pumps act at last.
The White SquallJohn Conroy Hutcheson
It is of little consequence on which my adze is first employed.
The King's OwnCaptain Frederick Marryat
They are not very heavy, and not so much of a load as your sledge-hammer and adze.
In The SaddleOliver Optic
adze
US adz
- a heavy hand tool with a steel cutting blade attached at right angles to a wooden handle, used for dressing timber
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Word Origin
Old English adesa
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for adze
n.
also adz, Middle English adese, adse, from Old English adesa "adze, hatchet," of unknown origin, perhaps somehow related to Old French aisse, Latin ascia "axe" (see ax). Spelling with -z- is from 18c. Adze "has been monosyllabic only since the seventeenth century. The word has no cognates, though it resembles the names of the adz and the hammer in many languages" [Liberman, 2008].
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper