pickax

American  

[pik-aks] / ˈpɪkˌæks /

Or pickaxe

noun

• pickaxes
  plural

1. a pick, especially a mattock.

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verb (used with object)

pickaxed, pickaxing

1. to cut or clear away with a pickax.

verb (used without object)

pickaxed, pickaxing

1. to use a pickax.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• pickaxes
  plural

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

See Examples For:

pickax pickaxes pickaxed pickaxing

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

The Gold Diggers logo featured a bearded man, who appeared to be a miner, carrying a pickax over his shoulder and wearing a headlamp with a baseball where the light should be.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2025

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

As the sun began to set Monday, Kris Pflugh of Chewack Wildfire was using a pickax to pull up hot ash and dirt, exposing orange embers.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 19, 2022

It was heavy work, and boring; there was nothing to it but swinging my pickax again and again, breaking off big chunks of salt that another prisoner shoveled into a donkey cart.

From "Prisoner B-3087" by Alan Gratz

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

In scorching heat, they attacked solid ground with pickaxes and hoes before carefully tucking the seedlings into the earth.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 13, 2024

According to The Guardian, officers used pickaxes, chain saws and rakes to search the peninsula and the surrounding woods.

From New York Times ● May 23, 2023

Led by brother David Fox, a troop of men carrying shovels and pickaxes descended the stairs to dig up the peddler’s body.

From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock

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 Booker T. Washington

After the single shot of the big rifle was fired, he had only a knife and a hatchet and the spiked and pickaxed ice-staff, and Brave.

From The Keeper by H. Beam Piper

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 Francis Rolt-Wheeler