tomahawk

/ˈtɑ.mə.hɑk/US/ˈtɑ.mə.hɔk/

tomahawk noun: an axe used by Native American warriors, originally made of stone, bone, or antler.

Noun (1)

tomahawk (plural tomahawks)

An axe used by Native American warriors, originally made of stone, bone, or antler.
- yeerely bring into our store house, at the beginning of their haruest two bushels of corne a man […] for which they should receiue so many Iron Tomahawkes or small hatchets.1615, Ralph Hamor, A True Discourse of the Present State of Virginia, Richmond, published 1957, page 13
- At first, her presence was not observed; but, no sooner did the stranger catch a glimpse of her person, than he stopped, raised his hands in surprise, laid his rifle against a tree, and sprang forward; the girl closing her eyes, and sinking on the seat, with bowed head, expecting the blow of the...1843, [James Fenimore Cooper], Wyandotté, or The Hutted Knoll. […], volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea and Blanchard, →OCLC, page 178
Synonyms:

hatchet
A dunk performed with one's arm behind one's head.
A geometric construction consisting of a semicircle and two line segments that serves as a tool for trisecting an angle; so called from its resemblance to the American Indian axe.
(field hockey) A field hockey shot style that involves a player turning their hockey stick upside-down and swinging it so that its inside edge will come into contact with the ball.

Verb

tomahawk (third-person singular simple present tomahawks, present participle tomahawking, simple past and past participle tomahawked)

(transitive) To strike or cut up with a tomahawk.
- In a moment the savage wretches dashed at him, and "tomahawked" the unfortunate man, who fell backwards into his cabin.1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 296
- Not satisfied with tomahawking our colleagues in the country, they ask the scanty remnant in the House to join in the scalp dance.1906, FE Smith, maiden speech to House of Commons, 12 Mar 1906
(historical, transitive) To girdle or incise the trees around (an area of land) so as to claim ownership of it.
- He was the owner of 1,300 acres of land bought from the government and located where the city of Lexington, Ky., now stands. After his marriage he tomahawked an area of 600 acres near Carmichaelstown, […]1909, Samuel Gordon Smyth, A Genealogy of the Duke-Shepherd-Van Metre Family: From Civil, Military, Church and Family Records and Documents, page 67
- Meantime, Silas Zane passed on and came to the forks, and admiring the locality, he tomahawked his right to it, securing one thousand acres.1915, Chronicles of the Cochrans: Being a Series of Historical Events and Narratives, in which Members of this Family Have Played a Prominent Part, page 55
(transitive) To perform a tomahawk dunk.
- When the league held its first slam-dunk contest in 1984 in Denver, Nance, then a Phoenix Sun, soared into the rafters with a basketball in each hand and tomahawked each one through the net before floating back to earth […]2007, Bob Dyer, The Top 20 Moments in Cleveland Sports, page 237

Noun (2) capitalized: Tomahawk

Tomahawk (plural Tomahawks)

The BGM-109 Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM), a long-range, all-weather, subsonic cruise missile with stubby wings, which can be launched from a ship or submarine.
- U.S. Navy surface ships launching Tomahawks against Chinese targets would thus have to approach within China's antiship-missile perimeter to bring their missiles in range (more on this in chapter 4).2022, Robert J Haddick, Fire on the Water: China, America, and the Future of the Pacific, second edition, Naval Institute Press, →ISBN, page 69

Proper noun capitalized: Tomahawk

Tomahawk

A rural locality in Dorset council area, north-east Tasmania, Australia.
A hamlet in Parkland County, Alberta, Canada.
A township in Searcy County, Arkansas.
An unincorporated community in Martin County, Kentucky.
An unincorporated community in Berkeley County, West Virginia.
A city in Lincoln County, Wisconsin.
A town in Lincoln County, Wisconsin, adjacent to the city.

tomahawk meaning in Hindi, Tamil and Marathi

tomahawk in Hindi

American Indian axe: टोमाहॉक ṭomāhŏk, तोमाहॉक tomāhŏk

tomahawk in Tamil

மழு, வடஅமெரிக்க செவ்விந்தியரின் போர்க்கோடாரி, மழுவெறிந்து வெட்டு, போர்க்கோடாரியை வீசியெறி

tomahawk in Marathi

American Indian axe: टॉमाहॉक ṭŏmāhŏk

Examples of tomahawk in a sentence

The Germans thought that by just tomahawking a claim and living on it, it was an "improvement" and that was sufficient for claim; but not so with the Land Office.1993, H. Austin Cooper, Two Centuries of Brothersvalley Church of the Brethren, 1762-1962: An Account of the Old Colonial Church, the Stony...
They tomahawked the land they settled on and were joined by other settlers.2011, Don Corbly, Pastor John Corbly and his neighbors in Greene Township, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 23:

Synonyms of tomahawk

hatchet

Forms of tomahawk

Noun
plural	tomahawks
plural	Tomahawks
Verb
third-person singular present	tomahawks
present participle	tomahawking
past participle	tomahawked
past	tomahawked

Plural of tomahawk: tomahawks

Origin of tomahawk

From an Eastern Algonquian word, most likely Powhatan tumahák; compare also Malecite-Passamaquoddy tomhikon (“axe”), Abenaki temahigan, demahigan (“axe”).

Words formed from tomahawk

Phrases with tomahawk

Questions about tomahawk

What does tomahawk mean?: Tomahawk means an axe used by Native American warriors, originally made of stone, bone, or antler.
What is tomahawk in Hindi?: Tomahawk in Hindi is टोमाहॉक (ṭomāhŏk), तोमाहॉक (tomāhŏk). See Tomahawk meaning in Hindi.
How do you use tomahawk in a sentence?: The Germans thought that by just tomahawking a claim and living on it, it was an "improvement" and that was sufficient for claim; but not so with the Land Office.
What part of speech is tomahawk?: Tomahawk can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce tomahawk?: Tomahawk is pronounced /ˈtɑ.mə.hɔk/ (US).
What is the plural of tomahawk?: The plural of tomahawk is tomahawks.

Words near tomahawk in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: tomahawk (page history and authors); Tomahawk (page history and authors); tomahawk (Tamil 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: 2026-09-02

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

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