Word.ws English Dictionary

bill-hook

bill-hook is the alternative form of billhook.

Meaning of billhook

Noun

billhook (plural billhooks)

  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.
    • 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...1869, Richard D. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, chapter 38
  3. (literary, often) A part of the knotting mechanism in a reaper-binder or baler (agricultural machinery).

See all 4 meanings of billhook

Forms of bill-hook

pluralbill-hooks

Questions about bill-hook

What is bill-hook the alternative form of?
Bill-hook is the alternative form of billhook.

Words near bill-hook in the dictionary

  1. bill-beetles
  2. bill-bird
  3. bill-birds
  4. bill-discounter
  5. bill-discounters
  6. bill-hook
  7. bill-hooks
  8. billa vera
  9. billability
  10. billable
  11. billables

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bill-hook (page history and authors); billhook (page history and authors). 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.

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Cite this entry: “bill-hook.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bill-hook. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.