axe
/æks/
axe noun: a tool for felling trees or chopping wood etc. consisting of a heavy head flattened to a blade on one side, and a handle attached to it. Also the alternative form of ask.
Noun (1)
axe (plural axes)
- A tool for felling trees or chopping wood etc. consisting of a heavy head flattened to a blade on one side, and a handle attached to it.
- An ancient weapon consisting of a head that has one or two blades and a long handle.
- A dismissal or rejection.
- His girlfriend/boss/schoolmaster gave him the axe.
- A drastic reduction or cutback.
- the Beeching Axe
- The tractor plant is slated for the axe.
- A gigging musician's particular instrument, especially a guitar in rock music or a saxophone in jazz.
- A position, interest, or reason in buying and selling stock, often with ulterior motives.
- A financial dealer has an axe in a stock that his buyers don't know about, giving him an advantage in making the most profit.
Verb (1)
axe (third-person singular simple present axes, present participle axing or axeing, simple past and past participle axed)
Noun (2)
axe (plural axes)
Verb (2)
axe (third-person singular simple present axes, present participle axing, simple past and past participle axed)
- To furnish with an axle.
Proper noun capitalized: Axe
the Axe
Also used as
axe is also the alternative form of ask.
axe meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
axe in Hindi
- tool
- कुल्हाड़ी kulhāṛī
- weapon
- कुल्हाड़ी kulhāṛī
axe in Tamil
- tool
- கோடரி kōṭari
axe in Marathi
- tool
- कुऱ्हाड kurhāḍ
axe in Urdu
- tool
- کُلْہاڑی kulhāṛī
- weapon
- تَبَر tabar
More languagesFewer languages
- axe in Bengali
- কুঠার kuṭhar, কুড়াল kuṛal
- axe in Telugu
- గొడ్డలి goḍḍali
- axe in Malayalam
- കോടാലി kōṭāli, മഴു maḻu
- axe in Kannada
- ಕೊಡ್ಲಿ koḍli, ಕುಠಾರ kuṭhāra
- axe in Punjabi
- ਕੁਹਾਡ਼ੀ, ਕੁਹਾਡ਼ਾ
- axe in Gujarati
- કુહાડી kuhāḍī
- axe in Odia
- କୁରାଢୀ kurāḍhi
- axe in Sanskrit
- परशु paraśu, कुठार kuṭhāra
- axe in Sinhala
- පොරොව porowa
- axe in Assamese
- কুঠাৰ kuthar
- axe in Nepali
- बन्चरो bancaro
- axe in Pashto
- تبرګۍ tabargəy
- axe in Tagalog
- palakol
- axe in Arabic
- فَأْس faʔs
- axe in Malay
- kapak
- axe in Indonesian
- kapak
- axe in Persian
- تَبَر tabar, تَبَرْزین tabarzin
- axe in Thai
- ขวาน kwǎan
- axe in Vietnamese
- rìu
- axe in Myanmar
- ပုဆိန် pu.hcin
- Dhivehi
- ކޯރާޑި kōrāḍi
Examples of axe in a sentence
- He got axed in the last round of firings.
- So Yü-t'ai was well clear of Ch'ang-ch'un when the axe fell in 1945.1994, Tony Scotland, The Empty Throne: The Quest for an Imperial Heir in the People's Republic of China, Penguin Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL...
- The busy North London line between Richmond and Broad Street was also for the axe, as was Leeds to Bradford and Ilkley.2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 50:
- On Wednesday, GSMA, which organises the congress, was forced to admit it would have to axe this year’s event after more than 40 companies pulled out citing health and safety concerns.2020 February 12, Mark Sweney, “Mobile World Congress axed after firms quit over coronavirus fears”, in The Guardian:
- The Department for Transport axed TfL's central grant in 2015, when Boris Johnson was London mayor.2020 June 17, Philip Haigh, “Capital for the capital to meet London's transport needs”, in Rail, page 28:
Synonyms of axe
22 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of axe
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | axes |
| alternative US | ax |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | axes |
| present participle | axing |
| present participle | axeing |
| past participle | axed |
| past | axed |
Origin of axe
From Middle English ax, axe, ex, from Old English æx (“axe”), from Proto-West Germanic *akusi (“axe”), from Proto-Germanic *akwisī (“axe”), probably from a Proto-Indo-European *h₂egʷsih₂ (“axe”), from *h₂eḱ- (“sharp, pointed”). Cognate with Scots aix (“axe”), Dutch aks (“axe”), German Axt (“axe”), Danish økse (“axe”), Faroese, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk øks (“axe”), Icelandic öxi (“axe”), Swedish yxa (“axe”), Latin ascia (“axe, mason's trowel”).
Derived from French axe, from Latin axis.
From Old English axian (“ask”); see ax for more.
Words formed from axe
- axeblade
- axe bombing
- Axe Creek
- axe head
- axe kick
- axeless
- axelike
- axeman
- axemanship
- axe murder
- axe-murder
- axe-murderer
- axe murderer
- axe throwing
- axe to grind
- axewoman
- axe wound
- Bad Axe
- battle-axe
- boarding axe
- break-axe
- broadaxe
- curtal-axe
- curt-axe
- curtle-axe
- dagger-axe
- give the axe
- greataxe
- Hagen axe
- hand axe
- have an axe to grind
- ice axe
- ice-axe
- mad as a meat axe
- man with the axe
- meat axe
- moot-axe
- pick-axe
- pole-axe
- poleaxe
- take an axe to
- throwing axe
- tomax
- Axbridge
- Axminster
- Axmouth
Phrases with axe
- axe bomb
- Dane axe
- fire axe
- axe bombs
- axe heads
- crash axe
- axe bombed
- axe wounds
- battle axe
- Danish axe
- Geddes Axe
- axe murders
12 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with axe
Questions about axe
- What does axe mean?
- Axe means a tool for felling trees or chopping wood etc. consisting of a heavy head flattened to a blade on one side, and a handle attached to it.
- What is axe in Hindi?
- Axe in Hindi is कुल्हाड़ी (kulhāṛī). See Axe meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use axe in a sentence?
- He got axed in the last round of firings.
- What part of speech is axe?
- Axe can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce axe?
- Axe is pronounced /æks/.
- What is the plural of axe?
- The plural of axe is axes.
Words near axe in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: axe (page history and authors); Axe (page history and authors); axe (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-axe.ogg.
Cite this entry: “axe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/axe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.