Meaning of billhook | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A medieval polearm, fitted to a long handle, sometimes with an L-shaped tine or a spike protruding from the side or the end of the blade for tackling the opponent; a bill.
2. An agricultural hand tool often with a curved or hooked end to the blade used for pruning or cutting thick, woody plants.
3. A part of the knotting mechanism in a reaper-binder or baler (agricultural machinery).
   literary, often
4. Rare form of bill hook (“spiked hook used in shops for hanging papers”).
   form-of, rare
5. Rare form of bill hook (“sharply pointed spike on honeyguide hatchlings' mandibles”).
   form-of, rare

Equivalents

Examples

“I worked very hard in the copse of young ash, with my billhook and a shearing-knife; cutting out the saplings where they stooled too close together, making spars to keep for thatching, wall-crooks to drive into the cob, stiles for close sheep hurdles, and handles for rakes, and hoes, and two-bills, of the larger and straighter stuff.”

“With a small billhook he carefully freed the collar of the tree from twigs and patches of moss which incrusted it to a height of a foot or two above the ground, an operation comparable to the "little toilet" of the executioner's victim.”

CEFR level