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pickaxe

British  
/ ˈpɪkˌæks /

noun

  1. a large pick or mattock

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. to use a pickaxe on (earth, rocks, etc)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

Mr Fooks was digging with a pickaxe by torchlight when he found the coins in a pottery bowl buried in a bare earth floor.

From BBC

One of the property's new owners, Robert Fooks, was digging with a pickaxe by torchlight when he found the trove in a pottery bowl.

From BBC

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

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

"Netflix's Resident Evil is proof it's time to bury a pickaxe in the franchise."

From BBC