poleax

American  

[pohl-aks] / ˈpoʊlˌæks /

Or poleaxe

noun

poleaxes plural

1. a medieval shafted weapon with blade combining ax, hammer, and apical spike, used for fighting on foot.

2. an ax, usually with a hammer opposite the cutting edge, used in stunning and slaughtering animals.

3. an ax with both a blade and a hook, formerly used in naval warfare to assist sailors in boarding vessels.

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verb (used with object)

poleaxed, poleaxing

1. to strike down or kill with or as if with a poleax.

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• poleaxes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of poleax

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English pollax “battle-ax,” literally, “head-ax” ( see poll ¹, ax); akin to Middle Low German polexe

Example Sentences

The normally thorough Ms. Lawrence then compounded her error by neglecting to poleax, or at the very least smack, the insanely annoying character played by Stanley Tucci throughout “The Hunger Games.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 24, 2015

Eight years ago, in Tommy Gallagher's Crusade, James T. Farrell beat his readers over the head with a poleax to make much the same point.

From Time Magazine Archive

Since there is no other reference to an incident involving Poles, critics generally agree that Shakespeare was referring to a heavy or "leaded poleax" that the king smote on the ice.

From Time Magazine Archive

Among her contributions is a design for a curved slaughterhouse ramp that is said to reduce animal anxiety by keeping hidden the high-tech poleax that dispatches the critters.

From Time Magazine Archive

Who could poleax a stickball like a twelfth-grader and catch a football like Hands Down.

From "Maniac Magee" by Jerry Spinelli