pickaxe
Britishnoun
verb
Etymology
Origin of pickaxe
C15: from earlier pikois (but influenced also by axe ), from Old French picois, from pic pick ²; compare also 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.
“I’m still hitting the wrong buttons here, I’m not used to the controls,” Shapiro said as he limply gestured his pickaxe toward a stone laden with glowing rubies.
From Slate • Mar. 24, 2023
The women quietly passed around words of sympathy and encouragement, while Abdiwali's father took turns with the other men, swinging a pickaxe into the hard, dry earth.
From BBC • Oct. 16, 2022
To answer that, Povich's colleague Gordon Elliott ran to a local firehouse, procured a pickaxe and took a few theatrical digs at the great concrete symbol of communism.
From Salon • Sep. 25, 2022
He took a pickaxe to every critical and commercial assumption about what movies could and should be, broke them wide open and reassembled the fragments into something radically strange and new.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 13, 2022
I spent a week with a pickaxe and shovel digging postholes.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
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.
