- a variation of pickax.
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.
"The person was pinned down but could move their hand. And I got them out alive," said Faramaya, who says he uses "nothing but a pickaxe and a shovel" to pick through the rubble.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
“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
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
And they don't look like people who would want to swing a pickaxe.
From "Counting by 7s" by Holly Goldberg Sloan
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.
