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

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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

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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

He told the inspectors he has occasionally used a pickax to try to unearth them.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2024

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

Then they focus their attention on the tall stranger with the pickax.

From "Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever" by Bill O'Reilly

Near the central village of Baziafla, flanked by tall grass, the pit was excavated over several weeks with spades, pickaxes and crushers, before the miners were driven out of town by the local authorities.

From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026

Rescuers used what tools they could scrounge — shovels, hoes, pickaxes, their bare hands.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026

"The effort it took me to get her out of there with my bare hands, with sledgehammers, with pickaxes... you can't even begin to imagine," he said.

From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026

With pickaxes and wheelbarrows, dozens of Palestinian workers in hard hats and high-visibility vests are clearing rubble from the ruins of the Gaza Strip's oldest and largest mosque.

From BBC ● Dec. 4, 2025

The pickaxes beat out a rhythm that rang all over The Mountain.

From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff

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

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

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 Arthur James Lyon Fremantle

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

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