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
Emerging from the pipe, the men untangled the mouse-size bats from their nets, a delicate process given the tangle of spiny wings in the mesh and the animals’ ice pick teeth.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 13, 2022
A common practice was to have jockeys’ room valets open soda cans by puncturing the top with an ice pick, making it impossible to drink more than a few drops at a time.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
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.
