Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

billhook

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: 1.31 in modern English

Syllables: bill-hook
IPA

17

Scrabble Score

8

Letters

2

Syllables

6

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

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.

noun

An agricultural hand tool often with a curved or hooked end to the blade used for pruning or cutting thick, woody plants.

noun

A part of the knotting mechanism in a reaper-binder or baler (agricultural machinery).

Literary

noun

Rare form of bill hook (“spiked hook used in shops for hanging papers”).

noun

Rare form of bill hook (“sharply pointed spike on honeyguide hatchlings' mandibles”).

verb

To use a billhook.

Example Sentences

"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."
"Toward the end of July, Vatanen took a forestry job. It meant billhooking and chopping excessive undergrowth from the woods on the sandy ridges around Kuhmo and living in a tent with an ever more faithful, almost full- grown hare."

Etymology

Earliest use in weapon (and later, agricultural) sense, bill (“a bladed pike (obsolete)”) + hook; other senses formed anew from various meanings of bill.

Usage

Literary

Inflected Forms

billhooks (plural) bill-hook (alternative) bill hook (alternative) billhooks (present, singular) billhooking (participle, present) billhooked (participle, past) billhooked (past)

Phrases

brush hook

Frequently Paired Words

brush hook crowbill hawkbill

Synonyms

handbill pruning hook hack hacker hedging bill hedging-bill hedge bill bill broom hook block hook Yorkshire bill vine hook

Questions

What does billhook mean?: 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.
Where does billhook come from?: Earliest use in weapon (and later, agricultural) sense, bill (“a bladed pike (obsolete)”) + hook; other senses formed anew from various meanings of bill.

How to pronounce billhook

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