Word.ws English Dictionary

helve

/hɛlv/

helve noun: the handle or haft of a tool or weapon.

Noun

helve (plural helves)

  1. The handle or haft of a tool or weapon.
    • It was the bad ax-helve someone had sold me— / “Made on machine,” he said, plowing the grain […]1917, Robert Frost, "The Ax-helve"
    • Happily they were only sketchily armed, the group-leaders carried pistols and pick-helves.1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 847
  2. A forge hammer lifted by a cam acting on the helve between the fulcrum and the head.

Verb

helve (third-person singular simple present helves, present participle helving, simple past and past participle helved)

  1. (transitive) To furnish (an axe, etc.) with a helve.

helve meaning in Tamil and Kannada

helve in Tamil

கோடாரி, சுத்தியல் முதலியவற்றின் கைப்பிடி

helve in Kannada

ಹಿಡಿ, ಕಾವು

Forms of helve

Noun
pluralhelves
Verb
third-person singular presenthelves
present participlehelving
past participlehelved
pasthelved

Origin of helve

From Middle English helfe, helve; from Old English hielfe, from Proto-Germanic *halbiją. Probably cognate to English half, although Etymonline claims relation from halter and helm.

Words that rhyme with helve

Questions about helve

What does helve mean?
Helve means the handle or haft of a tool or weapon.
What is helve in Tamil?
Helve in Tamil is கோடாரி, சுத்தியல் முதலியவற்றின் கைப்பிடி. See Helve meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is helve?
Helve can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce helve?
Helve is pronounced /hɛlv/.
What is the plural of helve?
The plural of helve is helves.

Words near helve in the dictionary

  1. Heltzel
  2. Heltzels
  3. Helu
  4. helus
  5. Helvarg
  6. helve
  7. helved
  8. helvellaceous
  9. helvellic
  10. helvellic acid
  11. Helvellyn

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: helve (page history and authors); helve (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); helve (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-helve.wav.

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