noun
pickaxe
PIHK-aks
noun
1
A heavy tool with a pointed metal head on a long handle, used for breaking up hard ground or rock.
"He used a pickaxe to break through the concrete path."
"Miners once relied on pickaxes to chip away at rock faces."
How to Use Pickaxe
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishA heavy digging tool with a pointed metal head.
Common pairings
swing a pickaxe
pickaxe and shovel
Word Forms
pickaxed past tense, pickaxes plural, pickaxes singular
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Etymology
An alteration of Middle English pikeis, related to French pic ("pike, point"), later reshaped in English under the influence of "pick" and "axe."