pickax
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pickax
1275–1325; pick 2 + ax; replacing Middle English picois < Middle French, Old French; akin to French pic pick 2. See pique 1
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.
See Examples For:
Don’t laugh: The labor secretary’s own lawyers, when pressed at oral argument, couldn’t rule out that a pickax used for mining remains a “mine” even when transported 5,000 miles from any extraction site.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
I knew where my father kept his shovel and pickax.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2023
Johnson's rumpled delivery extends the mileage of what becomes an extended joke that stops being funny after a point, which is Doug's knack for sniffing out goldmines but just missing the X with his pickax.
From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2023
Her DNA was found on a pickax on Daybell’s property, according to testimony from a forensic investigator.
From Seattle Times ● May 10, 2023
She wasn’t that out of shape—after all, her pickax in the mines had been heavy.
From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas
So instead of getting swept away by the narrative, I just settled in to enjoy the details: hammerhead sharks twisted into pickaxes, ships that scuttle like crabs, the drama of an underwater scream: “Guh-glurrgggh!”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2025
The store offers everything from basic tools to pan for gold in the river, such as pickaxes and scoops, to pinpointers and high-tech metal detectors that can cost thousands of dollars.
From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2025
As I leave, men with pickaxes and shovels are making slow progress in the rubble and Hussein prepares to erect a tent on what was left of his home.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2024
In one photo, several men wield pickaxes as they prepare to bust through sheets of fallen concrete.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 10, 2023
“Did you not hear them with the pickaxes this morning?” the first woman said.
From "When the Sea Turned to Silver" by Grace Lin
Then it happened — Harrington, wreathed in Druidic smoke, hoisted his guitar above his head and pickaxed his instrument into the guts of the 12-foot mirror, shattering it into oblivion.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 22, 2021
I asked him if it was true that he'd pickaxed his own furniture to get revellers out of his home.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 20, 2013
Day and night they chipped and hacked, pickaxed and burrowed deeper, uncovering whitened bones by the ton while the deranged clergyman rambled about, frothing like a lunatic.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
In the field the previous spring he had accompanied the expedition beyond the "Big Lead" to 84° 29', and with the strength of his broad shoulders he had pickaxed the way.
From A Negro Explorer at the North Pole by Washington, Booker T.
As my horse about this time began to show signs of fatigue, and as Lawley's pickaxed most alarmingly, we turned them into some clover to graze, whilst we watched two brigades pass along the road.
From Three Months in the Southern States, April-June 1863 by Fremantle, Arthur James Lyon
The Esquire Network is not exactly pickaxing into virgin ground as it debuts a travel show, a cooking show, a style show, and a show about real estate.
From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2013
No, they were all at work," said the other, "but they were pickaxing the rock in a listless sort of way that I recognized at once.
From The Boy With the U. S. Life-Savers by Rolt-Wheeler, Francis
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.
