trowel

From Middle English trowell, trouel, truel, from Middle French truelle, from Late Latin truella, from Classical Latin trulla, the diminutive of trua (“ladle”). Doublet of trullo.

A mason’s tool, used in spreading and dressing mortar, and breaking bricks to shape them.

I need to dig a hole for these begonias; would you pass me that trowel?

A gardener’s tool, shaped like a scoop, used in taking up plants, stirring soil etc.


trowel

en-verb

trowel (third-person singular simple present trowels, present participle troweling or trowelling, simple past and past participle troweled or trowelled)

trowels (present singular third-person)
troweling (participle present)
trowelling (participle present)
troweled (participle past)
troweled (past)
trowelled (participle past)
trowelled (past)

Most finish coats are troweled smooth, but sometimes you will have to add cosmetic touches to make the patch match the surrounding plaster, texturing the surface randomly or uniformly with any of a variety of tools, ranging from sponges to special trowels.

1980, Robert M. Jones, editor, Walls and Ceilings, Time-Life Books, →ISBN, page 26:

(transitive) To pass over with a trowel.


pitchfork

/ˈpɪt͡ʃˌfɔɹk/

From Middle English pichfork, pycchefork, pychforke, pikeforke, pikkforke, pic-forcke, equivalent to pitch + fork.

(casual, loosely) Any fork used for farm labor, even a digging fork (but such usage is often considered ignorant by experienced farmers).


lighter

→ Bengali: লাইটার (laiṭar)

→ Danish: lighter

→ Hindi: लाइटर (lāiṭar)

→ Japanese: ライター (raitā)

→ Korean: 라이터 (raiteo)

→ Norwegian:

→ Norwegian Bokmål: lighter

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: lighter

→ Pashto: لایټر (lāyṭar) (neologism)

→ Persian: لایْتَر (lāytar) (Dari)

→ Urdu: لائِٹَر (lāiṭar)

From light (“to ignite”) + -er. Cognate with Middle Dutch lichtere, lichter (“one who spreads light, illuminator”), Dutch lichter, luchter (“candle-holder, chandelier”). Compare also Middle English lightnere, liȝtnere (“one who enlightens or illuminates”).

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-lighter.wav

Cigarette in mouth, he clutched his pockets in search of a lighter.

A device used to light things, especially a reusable handheld device for creating fire to light cigarettes.


making-iron

(nautical) A tool somewhat like a chisel with a groove in it, used by caulkers of ships to finish the seams after the oakum has been driven in.


branding iron

A piece of metal bent into a distinctive shape, heated and used to brand livestock.


ripper

(mining) A hook-like tool used to tear away ore, rock, etc.

(agriculture) A tool or plant used to reduce soil compaction.

(US, New Jersey, slang) A hot dog deep-fried in oil until the casing bursts.


besom

besom (third-person singular simple present besoms, present participle besoming, simple past and past participle besomed)

besoms (present singular third-person)
besoming (participle present)
besomed (participle past)
besomed (past)
beesom (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English besme, beseme, from Old English besma, besema (“besom, broom, rod”), from Proto-West Germanic *besmō (“broom”).

Now, in her iceberg-white, holily laundered crinoline nightgown, under virtuous polar sheets, in her spruced and scoured dust-defying bedroom in trig and trim Bay View, a house for paying guests at the top of the town, Mrs Ogmore-Prichard widow, twice, of Mr Ogmore, linolium, retired, and Mr Prichard, failed bookmaker, who maddened by besoming, swabbing and scrubbing, the voice of the vacuum-cleaner and the fume of polish, ironically swallowed disinfectant...

1954, Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood […] , New York: New Directions, page 13:


chisel

From Middle English chisel, chesel, from Old Northern French chisel, cisel, from cisoir (with a change in suffix), from Late Latin cīsōrium (“cutting tool”), from Latin caedō (“cut”). Doublet of scissors.

A cutting tool used to remove parts of stone, wood or metal by pushing or pounding the back when the sharp edge is against the material. It consists of a slim, oblong block of metal with a sharp wedge or bevel formed on one end and sometimes a handle at the other end; there are hand tool versions (the original type) and versions as bits for power tools.

beitel

tool consisting of a slim oblong block of metal


winch

Tok Pisin: winis

→ Arabic: وِنْش (winš)

→ Japanese: ウインチ (uinchi)

→ Korean: 원치 (wonchi)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: vinsj

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: vinsj

→ Serbo-Croatian: vȉnč

→ Swahili: winchi

→ Swedish: vinsch

→ Ottoman Turkish: وینچ (vinç)

Turkish: vinç

From Middle English wynche, from Old English winċe, from Proto-Germanic *winkijǭ, ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European *weng- (“to bow, bend, arch, curve”), whence also wink.

der

mechanical advantage
mechanical advantage

A machine consisting of a drum on an axle, a friction brake or ratchet and pawl, and a crank handle or prime mover (often an electric or hydraulic motor), with or without gearing, to give increased mechanical advantage when hoisting or hauling on a rope or cable.

It runs on clattering steel tracks; the driver sits in a cab over the tracks, operating the controls that rotate the arm and turn the winch.

2013, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 27, in The Childhood of Jesus, Melbourne, Australia: The Text Publishing Company, page 267:

(nautical) A hoisting device used for loading or unloading cargo, or for pulling in lines.

A wince (machine used in dyeing or steeping cloth).


winch

en-verb

winch (third-person singular simple present winches, present participle winching, simple past and past participle winched)

winches (present singular third-person)
winching (participle present)
winched (participle past)
winched (past)

It is not the first time a cat-o'-nine-tails has been across my back for other men's misdeeds. Promise me a good flask of brandy when I'm done with it, and I warrant ye I'll never winch.

1812, Joanna Baillie, The Dream, part Act 1:


winch

She turned and looked at me, amused, gave a wee chuckle, kissed me on the mouth hard and quick, and again, and we were kissing for real, lingering, soft and moist and warm, me and Jeannie winching, and I wanted it not to stop.

Up at the cinema Campbell Cameron had been all slithering hands, like a dirty octopus. Even his tenderest winching had felt entitled and demanding.

2020, Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain, page 58:

(Scotland, colloquial, ambitransitive) to kiss, snog


hickey

hickeys (plural)
hicky (alternative)
hickie (alternative)

A tool for making smooth, semicircular bends in conduit and pipe.


sickle

From Middle English sikel (also assibilated in sichel), from Old English sicol, siċel, from Proto-West Germanic *sikilu, itself borrowed from Latin sēcula (“sickle”) or sīcīlis (“sickle”). Cognate with Dutch sikkel, German Sichel. Remotely related with English scythe and saw.

(agriculture) An implement having a semicircular blade and short handle, used for cutting long grass and cereal crops.


shank

From Middle English schanke, from Old English sċanca (“leg”), from Proto-West Germanic *skankō, from Proto-Germanic *skankô (compare West Frisian skonk, Dutch schenkel, Low German Schanke, German Schenkel (“shank, leg”), Danish skank, Norwegian skank, Swedish skänkel), from *skankaz (compare Old Norse skakkr (“wry, crooked”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keng- (compare Middle Irish scingim (“I spring”), Ancient Greek σκάζω (skázō, “to limp”).

Flat-nosed pliers, used by opticians for nipping off the edges of pieces of glass to make them round.


shank

shank (third-person singular simple present shanks, present participle shanking, simple past and past participle shanked)

shanks (present singular third-person)
shanking (participle present)
shanked (participle past)
shanked (past)

the gerrnens of these swelled, and on four out of the six I have now got fine pods, above 1% inch in length, with the seeds externally visible; whereas the flower stalks of the many other flowers all shanked off.

1861, Charles Darwin, Cause of the variation of flowers:

(intransitive) To fall off, as a leaf, flower, or capsule, on account of disease affecting the supporting footstalk; usually followed by off.


crimper

From crimp + -er (agent noun suffix) or, for the climbing hold, + -er (patient suffix).

A tool used to crimp, to join two pieces of metal.


paddy

Krio: pàdí

You know what I like best about paddy chicks? They give good head. Black broads don’t know nothing about giving head. I don’t know why. Might be it has something to do with some ancient tribal custom.

2000, Requiem For a Dream, spoken by Big Tim (Keith David):

(African-American Vernacular, slang) A white person.


scuffle

Possibly of North Germanic/Scandinavian origin; compare Swedish skuff (“a push”) and skuffa (“to push”), from the Proto-Germanic base *skuf- (skuƀ), from Proto-Indo-European *skewbʰ-, see also Lithuanian skùbti (“to hurry”), Polish skubać (“to pluck”), Albanian humb (“to lose”).

But even on the scuffle / The cleaner's press was in my jeans

1975, Joni Mitchell, “The Boho Dance”, in The Hissing of Summer Lawns:


scuffle

scuffle (third-person singular simple present scuffles, present participle scuffling, simple past and past participle scuffled)

scuffles (present singular third-person)
scuffling (participle present)
scuffled (participle past)
scuffled (past)

Certainly a gallant man had rather fight to great diſadvantages for number and place in the field in an orderly way, then ſcuffle with an undiſciplined rabble.

1648, attributed to Charles I of England, Εἰκὼν Βασιλική [Eikōn Basilikē = Royal Portrait]. The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Maiestie, in His Solitvdes and Svfferings, [London?]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 15:

(intransitive) To fight or struggle confusedly at close quarters.

meuleukek

to fight or struggle confusedly at close quarters

ā-āp-í

to fight or struggle confusedly typically to obtain someone's possession

But shiftings and readjustments ensued, as they are sure to do with a walking-party. Cope presently found himself scuffling through the thin grass and the briery thickets alongside the young business-man.

1919, Henry B[lake] Fuller, “Cope at His House Party”, in Bertram Cope’s Year: A Novel, Chicago, Ill.: Ralph Fletcher Seymour, The Alderbrink Press, →OCLC, page 94:

(intransitive) To walk with a shuffling gait.

Once a good friend of mine, a fine hoofer who was having trouble getting bookings, ran up to that tree, gave it a big smack, and yelled “Lawd please make me a pimp, any kind of a pimp, long as I’m pimpin’. I’m tired of scufflin’ and my feet are too long outa work.”

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Tell a Green Man Something”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 3 (1928–1935: The Big Apple), page 208:

(slang) To make a living with difficulty, getting by on a low income, to struggle financially.


scuffle

The noun is a borrowing from the Dutch noun, Dutch schoffel; the English verb arose via subsequent verbification within English but is also parallel with the Dutch verb, schoffelen.

Near-synonyms: collinear hoe, collineal hoe (loosely synonymous)

A type of hoe, manipulated by both pushing and pulling, with a sharp blade parallel with the worked surface; an instance of this type.


scuffle

Near-synonyms: (sometimes synonymous) scarify, cultivate, grub; weed

en:work the soil surface for weeding, etc

(agriculture) To work the soil surface for weeding, etc.


tweaker

From tweak + -er; the drug addict sense derives from the slang term tweak for methamphetamines, in reference to the punding behavior of addicts.

A tool, especially a screwdriver, for making small adjustments.


paintbrush

畫筆 /画笔

generally smaller, for artistic purposes

油漆刷

generally larger, for commercial purposes


cramp

cramp (third-person singular simple present cramps, present participle cramping, simple past and past participle cramped)

cramps (present singular third-person)
cramping (participle present)
cramped (participle past)
cramped (past)

From Middle English crampe, from Old French crampe (“cramp”), from Frankish *krampa (“cramp”), from Proto-West Germanic *krampu, from Proto-Germanic *krampō (“cramp, clasp”). Distant relative of English crop.

The collar of the tunic scratched my neck, the steel helmet made my head ache, and the puttees cramped my leg muscles.

1936, Heinrich Hauser, Once Your Enemy (translated from the German by Norman Gullick)

(transitive) To affect with cramps or spasms.

To fasten or hold with, or as if with, a cramp iron.

The […] fabric of universal justice is well cramped and bolted together in all its parts.

1780, Edmund Burke, Principles in Politics:

(by extension) To bind together; to unite.


cramp

en-adj

cramp (comparative more cramp, superlative most cramp)

more cramp (comparative)
most cramp (superlative)

[…] the result was those folio volumes of MSS. now in the British Museum, in which inquirers into the history of that period find so much interesting material in such a confused state and in such a dreadfully cramp handwriting.

1871, David Masson, The Life of John Milton:


bottle opener

bottle openers (plural)
bottle-opener (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-bottle opener.wav

A device used to remove the cap from a bottle.

A device used to remove the cork from a bottle.


monkey wrench

monkey wrenches (plural)
monkeywrench (alternative)
monkey-wrench (alternative)

Monkey wrench#Etymology and history
monkey wrench

Already in use, and not unfamiliar among mechanics, by 1832; see discussion and references at Monkey wrench § Etymology and history.

Did you ever stop to think whether or not you knew how a monkey wrench should be used?

With a monkey wrench on the hexagonal part of the stuffing box unscrew the stuffing box from the body of the faucet.

1948, George M. Warren, Simple Plumbing Repairs in the Home: Farmers' Bulletin, number 1460, page 2:

There were two monkey wrenches for that, sitting in a bucket. Lisa held one wrench and I applied the other and in a few minutes we had removed the motor head and set it on the ground.

2010, A. M. Murray, The Secret of the Serpent Mound, unnumbered page:

A wrench (spanner) with an adjustable jaw.


gill

A two-wheeled frame for transporting timber.


claw hammer

en-noun

claw hammer (countable and uncountable, plural claw hammers)

From claw + hammer, descriptive of the shape of the tool's head.

A hammer with two prongs protruding back from the head to allow for removing nails from wood.


sledgehammer

sledgehammers (plural)
sledge-hammer (alternative)

These were succeeded by anchor and chain-cable forges, where sledgehammers were dinging upon iron all day long.

1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC:

A hammer that consists of a large, heavy, broad and flat block of metal (the head) attached to a handle typically 0.5 meter to 1 meter long. The sledgehammer's design is meant to allow it to be swung powerfully, and to distribute force over a wide area upon impact.

ញញួរដំដែក

ñɔɔñɔñuə dɑm daek


flatter

From flat (“to make flat, flatten”) + -er (agent suffix).


pestle

From Middle English pestel, pestell, from Old French pestel, from Latin pistillum, from pīnsō (“pound, beat”). Doublet of pistil and pistillum.

She then sat down by the fire, and carefully separated the stone from the pulp, which she burnt; and her next task was to extract the kernel, which she did by means of a heavy pestle and the hearth. The kernels were next crushed together, and placed to simmer over the furnace.

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Laboratory”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 327:

A club-shaped, round-headed stick used in a mortar to pound, crush, rub or grind things.

alèe

instrument used with a mortar to grind things

אייבערשטע פֿון שטייסל n (eybershte fun shteysl, literally “top of mortar”)


bradawl

‘I wish I wos behind him vith a bradawl,’ muttered the long one.

1836, Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers 36

For the first adjustment [to a door that keeps swinging open], you might need to remove the screws from the frame, move the hinge slightly, and then make new screw holes with a bradawl and reinsert the screws.

2016 January 30, Jeff Howell, “Swinging doors: it's not open and shut”, in The Daily Telegraph (Property), page 15:

An awl with a blade similar to a small, straight screwdriver; used for making holes, especially in wood to take screws.


walking stick

walking sticks (plural)
walking-stick (alternative)
walkingstick (alternative)

It was flood-tide along Fifth Avenue; motor, brougham, and victoria swept by on the glittering current; pretty women glanced out from limousine and tonneau; young men of his own type, silk-hatted, frock-coated, the crooks of their walking sticks tucked up under their left arms, passed on the Park side.

1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “His Own People”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 6:

A tool, such as a cane, used to ease pressure on the legs, and to aid stability, when walking.


throe

froe

Synonym of froe (“a cleaving tool for splitting cask staves and shingles from a block of wood”).


ard

Borrowed from Norwegian ard (“plough”), from Old Norse arðr, from Proto-Germanic *arþrą (“plough”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂érh₃trom (“plough”), whence also Latin aratrum.

A simple plough consisting of a spike dragged through the soil.


wheelbarrow

en-verb

wheelbarrow (third-person singular simple present wheelbarrows, present participle wheelbarrowing, simple past and past participle wheelbarrowed)

wheelbarrows (present singular third-person)
wheelbarrowing (participle present)
wheelbarrowed (participle past)
wheelbarrowed (past)

/ˈʍiːl.bæɹ.əʊ/

General American, Mary–marry–merry merger

From Middle English whelbarwe; equivalent to wheel + barrow.

(transitive, aviation) To cause the weight of an aeroplane to become concentrated around the nosewheel.


whetstone

[ˈʍɛʔˌstoʊn]

From Middle English whestone, whetston, whetesston, from Old English hwetstān, from Proto-West Germanic *hwattjastain (“whetstone”). Equivalent to whet (“to sharpen”) + stone.

inh

[…]for alwaies the dulneſſe of the foole, is the whetstone of the wits.

c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 186, column 2, line 192:

It was as if a stone were ground to dust; as if white sparks flew from a livid whetstone, which was his spine; as if the switchback railway, having swooped to the depths, fell, fell, fell.

1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC:

A sharpening stone; a hard stone or piece of synthetically bonded hard minerals that has been formed with at least one flat surface, used to sharpen or hone an edged tool.


wire brush

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-wire brush.wav

A brush that has bristles made of wire; used as an abrasive and on masonry etc; especially (when without a qualifier) the hand tool type of such a brush.


wire brush

en-verb

wire brush (third-person singular simple present wire brushes, present participle wire brushing, simple past and past participle wire brushed)

wire brushes (present singular third-person)
wire brushing (participle present)
wire brushed (participle past)
wire brushed (past)

To scrub with a wire brush, especially the hand tool type.


rasp

From Middle English raspen, from Old French rasper, from Frankish *hraspōn, from Proto-Germanic *hraspōną, related to Proto-Germanic *hrespaną (“to tear”). Compare Old High German raspōn (“to gather, rake”), Old English ġehrespan (“to tear”).
The noun is from Middle French raspe.

cog

A coarse file or filelike tool, on which the cutting prominences are distinct points raised by the oblique stroke of a sharp punch, instead of lines raised by a chisel, as on the true file.


froe

Abbreviation of obsolete frower, from froward (“turned away”), referring to the orientation of the blade, at right angles to the handle. From late 16th century.

Patch shingles on the barn roof: do we have a maul and froe?

1997, Charles Frazier, chapter 4, in Cold Mountain, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 88:

A cleaving tool for splitting cask staves and shingles from a block of wood.


trivet

PIE word
 *tréyes
From Middle English trevet, from Old English trefet, borrowed from Latin tripēs, tripedis (“tripod”).

Edward H[enry] Knight
w:Edward H. Knight

A weaver's knife used to cut out the wire that was used to form a pile.


tackle

en-noun

tackle (countable and uncountable, plural tackles)

From Middle English takel (“gear, apparatus”), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German takel (“ship's rigging”), perhaps related to Middle Dutch taken (“to grasp, seize”). Akin to Danish takkel (“tackle”), Swedish tackel (“tackle”). More at take.

der

(nautical, slang, uncountable) Clothing.

(fishing, uncountable) Equipment (rod, reel, line, lure, etc.) used when angling.

(countable) Any instance in which one person intercepts another and forces them to the ground.

taklaus

instance of forcing another person to the ground


Phillips head

Phillips heads (plural)
phillips head (alternative)
phillips-head (alternative)
Phillips-head (alternative)

From Phillips head screwdriver and Phillips head screw, by shortening; eponymous of Henry F. Phillips of Portland, OR, the inventor of the '+' shaped socket for screws.

A screwdriver with a '+' shaped head for turning screws so socketed.


counterbore

From counter- (“against”) + bore (“hole”).

Meronyms: flute, pilot (the land at the tip, which rides the hole as a guide), shank

The cutter used to cut such a recess. (Also used, at less depth, for spotfacing.)


anvil

From Middle English anfilt, anvelt, anfelt, from late Old English anfilt, anfilte, anfealt, from earlier onfilti (“anvil”), from Proto-West Germanic *anafalt (compare Middle Dutch anvilte, Low German Anfilts, Anefilt, Old High German anafalz), compound of *ana (“on”) + *falt (“beaten”) (compare German falzen (“to groove, fold, welt”), Swedish dialectal filta (“to beat”)), from Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂-t- (“shaken, beaten”) (compare Middle Irish lethar (“leather”), Latin pellō (“to beat, strike”), Ancient Greek πάλλω (pállō, “to toss, brandish”)), enlargement of Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂- (“to stir, move”). More at felon.

der

My heart is as an anvil unto sorrow,
Which beats upon it like the Cyclops’ hammers […]

1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act I]:

I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus,
The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool,
With open mouth swallowing a tailor’s news […]

c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

1794, William Blake, “The Tyger,” lines 15-16,
What the anvil? what dread grasp / Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

Thus at the flaming forge of life / Our fortunes must be wrought; / Thus on its sounding anvil shaped / Each burning deed and thought!

1839, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[Miscellaneous.] w:The Village Blacksmith.”, in Ballads and Other Poems, 2nd edition, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, published 1842, →OCLC, stanza 8, page 102:

With an anvil-ding / And with fire in him forge thy will / Or rather, rather then, stealing as Spring / Through him, melt him but master him still: [...]

1875–1876, Gerard Manley Hopkins, “The Wreck of the Deutschland”, in Robert Bridges, editor, Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins: Now First Published […], London: Humphrey Milford, published 1918, →OCLC, part 1, stanza 10, page 14:

A heavy iron block used in the blacksmithing trade as a surface upon which metal can be struck and shaped.

(anatomy) The incus bone in the middle ear.

A stone or other hard surface used by a bird for breaking the shells of snails.

The non-moving surface of a micrometer against which the item to be measured is placed.

(meteorology) A horizontal-topped mass of cloud, shaped like a blacksmith's anvil, that forms before a thunderstorm.


anvil

en-verb

anvil (third-person singular simple present anvils, present participle anvilling or anviling, simple past and past participle anvilled or anviled)

anvils (present singular third-person)
anvilling (participle present)
anviling (participle present)
anvilled (participle past)
anvilled (past)
anviled (participle past)
anviled (past)

I Have anvil’d out this Iron Age,
Which I commit, not to your patronage,
But skill and Art […]

1648, Abraham Cowley, The Foure Ages of England, or, The Iron Age with Other Select Poems, London, Postscript:

The Family Tang caus’d an Iron Pillar to be erected there of three Rods high, and of a proportionable thickness, Anvil’d out of an intire Piece.

1671, “A Third Embassy to the Emperor of China and East-Tartary”, in John Ogilby, transl., Atlas Chinensis, London, page 291:

I never started a roguery, that did not come out of thy forge in a manner ready anvilled and hammered for execution […]

1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XCII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume VII, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC, page 341:

(transitive, often figurative) To fashion on, or as if on, an anvil.


zax

Inherited from Middle English sax (“knife”), from Old English seax, from Proto-West Germanic *sahs, from Proto-Germanic *sahsą. Doublet of sax.

inh+

A tool, similar to a hatchet, used to prepare slate for roofing.


loggerhead

From logger (“(dialectal) heavy wooden block secured to a horse's leg to prevent it from straying”) + head. Logger was apparently coined because its sound connotes a clumsy, heavy object; compare log (“trunk of a dead tree; bulky piece of wood”).

compound

Ah, you whoreſon loggerhead, you were borne to do me ſhame.

c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC; republished as Shakspere’s Loves Labours Lost (Shakspere-Quarto Facsimiles; no. 5), London: W[illiam] Griggs, […], [1880], →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

[Y]ou in the mean time, you ſilly Logerhead, deſerve to have your Bones well-thraſh'd with a Fool's ſtaff, for thinking to ſtir up Kings and Princes to War by ſuch Childiſh Arguments.

1692, John Milton, “The Author’s Preface”, in [Joseph Washington], transl., A Defence of the People of England, […]: In Answer to Salmasius’s Defence of the King, [London?]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page xx:

(obsolete) A stupid person; a blockhead, a dolt.


pricker

A priming wire; a priming needle, used in blasting and gunnery.


straightedge

straightedges (plural)
straight edge (alternative)

A flat, rectangular tool used to draw, cut or check the straightness of straight lines.


cat's-paw

en-noun

cat's-paw (plural cat's-paws or cats'-paws)

cat's-paws (plural)
cats'-paws (plural)
cat's paw (alternative)
catspaw (alternative)

From cat + paw. In most senses, due to a resemblance of shape. In its senses as a pawn to another's interests or analysis, variant of earlier cat's-foot, derived from European tales of a monkey (attested as early as 1456 but sometimes misattributed to the 16th-century monkey of Pope Julius II) who used a sleeping puppy or cat's foot to rake hot chestnuts out of a fire, taken as a metaphor for rulers' ill use of their subjects. Now usually understood in light of Jean de La Fontaine's 1679 fable of the "The Monkey and the Cat" (sometimes misattributed to Aesop), in which the monkey fools the cat into removing the chestnuts through flattery and promises of shared reward. The cat removes the chestnuts one by one, burning his paw while the monkey eats each in turn. A maid then enters and chases them both away. La Fontaine's moral concludes that princes should not endure real losses for mere flattery from their king.

dupe

one unwittingly used for another's purposes

an unrelated metaphor from a separate story

pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire

(historical weaponry, torture) A metal set of claws worn over the hand or wielded in the hand used to remove skin and flesh.


flail

From Middle English flayle, from earlier fleil, fleyl, fleȝȝl, from Old English fligel, *flegel (“flail”), from Proto-West Germanic *flagil, of uncertain origin. Cognate with Scots flail (“a thresher's flail”), West Frisian fleil, flaaiel (“flail”), Dutch vlegel (“flail”), German Flegel (“flail”). Possibly a native Germanic word from Proto-Germanic *flagilaz (“whip”), from Proto-Germanic *flag-, *flah- (“to whip, beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂k- (“to beat, hit, strike; weep”); compare Old Norse flaga (“sudden attack, bout”), Lithuanian plàkti (“to whip, lash, flog”), Ancient Greek πληγνύναι (plēgnúnai, “strike, hit, encounter”), Latin plangō (“lament”, i.e. “beat one's breast”) + Proto-Germanic *-ilaz (instrumental suffix). If so, related also to English flag, flack, flacker.
Alternatively, Proto-West Germanic *flagil may be an early borrowing of Latin flagellum (“winnowing tool, thresher”), diminutive of flagrum (“scourge, whip”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlag-, *bʰlaǵ- (“to beat”); compare Old Norse blekkja (“to beat, mistreat”). Compare also Old French flael (“flail”), Walloon flayea (“flail”) (locally pronounced "flai"), Italian flagello (“scourge, whip, plague”).

cog

When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn
That ten day-labourers could not end;

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail

1816, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan:

On him alone the curse of Cain
Fell, like a flail on the garnered grain,
And struck him to the earth!

1842, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Slave in the Dismal Swamp:

If the farmer must use the spade because he has not capital enough for a plough, the sickle instead of the reaping machine, the flail instead of the thresher...

1879, Henry George, chapter V, in Progress and Poverty:

A tool used for threshing, consisting of a long handle (handstock) with a shorter stick (swipple or swingle) attached with a short piece of chain, thong or similar material.


peeler

From Middle English peler, piller, pyllare, pilour, pelure, pelour, equivalent to peel + -er.

(derogatory, slang) A stripper; one who disrobes for entertainment.


plummet

From Middle English plommet (“ball of lead, plumb of a bob-line”), recorded since 1382, from Old French plommet or plomet, the diminutive of plom, plum (“lead, sounding lead”), from Latin plumbum (“lead”). The verb is first recorded in 1626, originally meaning “to fathom, take soundings", from the noun.

inh

I'le ſeeke him deeper than ere plummet ſounded, / And with him there lye mudded.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 13, column 2:

Iudgement also will I lay to the line, and righteousnesse to the plummet: and the haile shall sweepe away the refuge of lyes, and the waters shall ouerflow the hiding place.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 28:17:

Each long black hair upon his head hung down as straight as any plummet line; […]

1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, chapter 21, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC:

And love was the plummet dropped down into the deeps of him where like had never gone.

1906 May–October, Jack London, chapter VI, in White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC:

He told her then of his life since he had returned to the jungle—of how he had dropped like a plummet from a civilized Parisian to a savage Waziri warrior, and from there back to the brute that he had been raised.

1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg, published March 1915, →OCLC:

(archaic, nautical) A piece of lead attached to a line, used in sounding the depth of water; a plumb bob or a plumb line.


microscope

en-verb

microscope (third-person singular simple present microscopes, present participle microscoping, simple past and past participle microscoped)

microscopes (present singular third-person)
microscoping (participle present)
microscoped (participle past)
microscoped (past)

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *mey-der.?
Ancient Greek μῑκρός (mīkrós)
Proto-Indo-European *speḱ-
Proto-Indo-European *-yeti
Proto-Indo-European *spéḱyeti
Proto-Hellenic *sképťomai
Ancient Greek σκέπτομαι (sképtomai)
Proto-Hellenic *-os
Ancient Greek -ος (-os)
Ancient Greek -ός (-ós)
Ancient Greek σκοπός (skopós)
Proto-Indo-European *-eti
Proto-Indo-European *-eyéti
Proto-Indo-European *-esyéti
Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti
Proto-Indo-European *-yeti
Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁yeti
Proto-Indo-European *-yeti
Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti
Ancient Greek -έω (-éō)
Ancient Greek σκοπέω (skopéō)
Proto-Indo-European *-yós
Old Latin -ios
Latin -ius
Latin -ium
Latin mīcroscopiumlbor.
Italian microscopiobor.
English microscope
From New Latin microscopium and Italian microscopio, from Ancient Greek μικρός (mikrós, “small”) + σκοπέω (skopéō, “I look at”), equivalent to micro- + -scope.

etymon

It has a strong germicidal action, as can be verified by staining and microscoping the pus, the characteristic micro-organisms disappearing rapidly under its use.

Wright (1959), using the standard and less laborious technique of microscoping the centrifuged deposit of a sample of urine, found that 21.6% of males attending life insurance examinations had more than 10 red blood cells per high power field (rbc/hpf).

2012, E.J. Zingg, D.M.A. Wallace, Bladder Cancer, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 79:

To examine with a microscope, to put under a microscope (literally or figuratively).


clamp

From Middle Dutch clamp, klampe (“a clamp, hook”), from Proto-Germanic *klampō (“clamp, clasp, cramp”), related to Proto-West Germanic *klammjan.
Cognate with Middle Low German klampe (“hook, clasp”), German Klampfe, Klampe (“clamp, cleat”), Norwegian klamp (“clamp”), Alemannic German Chlempi.

cog

(medicine) An instrument used to temporarily shut off blood vessels, etc.

(UK) A parking enforcement device used to immobilise a car until it can be towed or a fine is paid; a wheel clamp.


center punch

center punches (plural)
centre punch (alternative)

(countable) A tool used to create a small indentation in preparation for drilling a hole.


betty

betties (plural)
bettee (alternative)
Betty (alternative)

Betty Rubble
Green's Dictionary of Slang

From Betty (nickname for “Elizabeth”). In thieves’ cant a tool for wrenching locked doors is also called a Bess (from “Elizabeth”) or a Jenny. The “attractive woman” sense may relate to the character Betty Rubble in the cartoon The Flintstones.

After a quick meal at a tea shop, we found ourselves in the hallway at the Midland Hotel, where he removed a skeleton key, or “betty” as he called it, from his pocket and inserted it in the keyhole. […] Once they were out of sight, I fumbled about with the betty for a few moments before the lock finally clicked open.

1958, Will Thomas, To Kingdom Come, page 161:

(slang) A picklock, skeleton key; a tool for opening locks.


ferrule

en-verb

ferrule (third-person singular simple present ferrules, present participle ferruling, simple past and past participle ferruled)

ferrules (present singular third-person)
ferruling (participle present)
ferruled (participle past)
ferruled (past)

From Middle English verel, virel, virole (“ferrule; metal pivot on the end of an axle”), altered under the influence of Latin ferrum (“iron”), from Old French virole (“ferrule”), from Latin viriola (“little bracelet”), diminutive of viria (“bracelet worn by men”), from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *weiros (“crooked”) (compare Middle Irish fiar (“bent, crooked”), Welsh gŵyr, Breton gwar (“curved”)), from Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁ros (“threaded, turned, twisted”), from *weyh₁- (“to turn, twist, weave”).

refn

From the collection of the Auckland War Memorial Museum in Auckland, New Zealand.

der

"District school, I mean," said Dave, with a flourish of the hand. "Where the master or mistress boards about, and ferrules the children with a pine ruler, if they don't toe a crack every spelling time."

[1866, Ann S[ophia] Stephens, “The Sailor and His Two Companions”, in The Gold Brick, Philadelphia, Pa.: T. B. Peterson and Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 203:

The return of the Thunderer from her protracted steam trial to Madeira has removed all doubt with regard to the efficacy of the new patent ferrule, as applied to boiler tubes. […] In fact, the highly successful results of the trial will, no doubt, lead to the universal practice of ferruling the boiler tubes in all our war vessels fitted with forced draft.

1892 November, “Ships”, in Journal of the American Society of Naval Engineers, volume IV, number 4, Washington, D.C.: R. Beresford, printer, →OCLC, page 837:

I employed a practical boiler smith, who expanded and ferruled the tubes.

1902, The English Mechanic and World of Science, volume 74, London: E. J. Kibblewhite, →OCLC, page 42:

Once inside the shop he took the line and cut the bad end off and with that done, he attempted to ferrule the cut end.

2011, Jerry Aaron, “The Fork in the Road”, in Diesel Smoke over Asphalt Ribbons: Dreams in the Rearview Mirror, Sparks, Nev.: Jerry Aaron, →ISBN, page 130, column 1:


mop head

mop heads (plural)
mophead (alternative)

The end of a mop, to which the thrums or rags are fastened.


pickaxe

pickaxes (plural)
pickax (alternative)
pick-axe (alternative)

Inherited from Middle English pykeaxe, pecaxe, pyke exe (“pickaxe”), an alteration (due to folk etymology association with pick and axe) of Middle English pikeyse, pikeys, pykois, from Anglo-Norman *pikeis, Old French picois, pecois, from Latin picōsa (“pickaxe”), from picca, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *pīk (“sharp point, pike”). Doublet of pique and pike.

A heavy iron tool with a wooden handle; one end of the head is pointed, the other has a chisel edge.


soldering iron

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-soldering iron.wav

A hand-held tool with a heated tip, used to melt and apply solder.


tape measure

Reappearing, tape-measure in hand, he went into the bedroom and took slow and accurate measurements, whistling delightedly to find that his pre-mortem theoretical calculations and post-mortem practical measurements hardly varied.

1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 126:

A graduated flexible ribbon used for measuring lengths.

皮尺

made of linen or cloth, usually non-retractable


vise

vises (plural)
vice (alternative British English)

→ Japanese: バイス

From Middle English vis, vys, vice (“screw”), from Anglo-Norman vyz, vice, from Old French vis (“screw”), from Latin vītis f (“vine”).
Probably akin to English withe.

Clamp this loop in a strong vise and twist the two ends evenly into one piece. As the twisting progresses, move the wire along so as to keep the grip of the vise close to the hands.

1937 October, R. H. Jenkins, “Five attractive new designs you can work out from inexpensive materials”, in Popular Science, volume 131, number 4, Bonnier Corporation, page 96:

(US) An instrument consisting of two jaws, closing by a screw, lever, cam, or the like, for holding work, as in filing.


backscratcher

backscratchers (plural)
back scratcher (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-backscratcher.wav

A long slender rod with a rake-like device on one end, sometimes in the form of a human hand, designed to let a person scratch their own back.

不求人 (bat¹ kau⁴ jan⁴, literally “not to seek help from others”)

抓耙子 (zhuāpázi, literally “scratching rake”)

爪仗 (zhǎozhàng, literally “claw to rely on”)

不求人 (bùqiúrén, literally “not to seek help from others”)

מַגְרֵד גַּב m (magréd gav, literally “back scratcher”)

מַגְרֵד m (magréd, literally “scratcher”)

孫の手 (まごのて, mago no te, literally “grandchild's hand”)

효자손 (hyojason, literally “dutiful son's hand”)


letter opener

letter openers (plural)
letter-opener (alternative)

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Any of several devices for opening letters, either by breaking wax seals or (as is usually the case today) by cutting open their envelopes.

A device incorporating a small razor-style blade in the crotch of a U-shaped plastic handle; it slices the envelope while being, like a safety razor, unlikely to cut the user accidentally.


penknife

en-verb

penknife (third-person singular simple present penknifes, present participle penknifing, simple past and past participle penknifed)

penknifes (present singular third-person)
penknifing (participle present)
penknifed (participle past)
penknifed (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-penknife.wav

From Middle English penne knyfe; equivalent to pen + knife. In the original sense, named for its purpose: aiding the use of a (traditional) ink pen through the following tasks: trimming the tip of a quill pen, trimming a reed for a nib, and (in some cases) allowing erasure by scraping away some ink.

(transitive) To cut or carve with a penknife.


pocketknife

pocketknives (plural)
pocket-knife (alternative)
pocket knife (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-pocketknife.wav

Jimmy had a pocketknife, and he wandered into the drawing-room with it one day, alone, and reduced ten thousand dollars' worth of furniture to an indeterminable value in rather less than three-quarters of an hour.

1878, Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer Abroad; About Magnanimous-Incident Literature:

The Army, the Navy, the Maritime Commission, and Lend-Lease demanded more and more pocketknives — for demolition kits, medical kits, aviators’ kits, electricians’ kits; knives with tools, knives with marlin spikes. The pocketknife attained a new status — as indispensable equipment for all men in uniform.

1944, Alfred Lief, Camillus: The Story of an American Small Business:

A knife small enough for carrying safely and handily in a pocket; usually a folding knife (with blades or tools that the user can fold or retract into the handle).

thikëz

small knife whose blades or tools can fold in its handle


planer

Besides the usual run of machines, planers, millers, automatics, centre lathes, cranes, etc., there were several power stations, the rolling mills for strip material and for 60 ft. rails, and all the steel furnaces with their complicated systems of flues. If variety is the spice of life, then there was plenty here.

1944 November and December, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 341:

mechanical engineering
mechanical engineering

(mechanical engineering) A large machine tool in which the workpiece is traversed linearly (by means of a reciprocating bed) beneath a single-point cutting tool. (Analogous to a shaper but larger and with the workpiece moving instead of the tool.) Planers can generate various shapes, but were most especially used to generate large, accurate flat surfaces. The planer is nowadays obsolescent, having been mostly superseded by large milling machines.


trammel

From Middle English trameyle, from Old French tramail (“net for catching fish”), from Late Latin tremaculum, from tri- (“tri-”) + macula (“spot, speck; mesh, cell”). Cognate with Italian tramaglio (“trammel”), Spanish trasmallo (“drift net”).


scaler

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An electronic circuit that aggregates many signals into one.

An electronic or computer system that adjusts the size of a signal or graphic to fit on a screen etc.

The explorer was renowned as a scaler of the world's tallest mountains.

(dentistry) A dentistry tool with two hooks.


centerpunch

A hand tool used to prepare a workpiece prior to drilling a hole. It typically compresses and then suddenly releases a spring, creating a small indentation that, in turn, guides and centers the drill.


posser

(UK) A tool for possing, or agitating laundry in a tub. It usually takes the form a bell shape or a circular plate with holes and vertical handle attached at the centre.


creeper

From Middle English crepere, from Old English crēopere, equivalent to creep + -er. Slang usage derived from phrase give the creeps or creep out (distinct from merely one who creeps).

(nautical) A small four-hooked grapnel used to recover objects dropped onto the sea bed.


hand tool

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A tool powered by human muscle rather than a motor or engine.


pipe wrench

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An adjustable wrench (British spanner) with a toothed jaw for gripping pipe, frequently used by a plumber or pipe fitter, to loosen and tighten pipes with threaded connections.


log dog

A device for holding a log in place while it is being worked on. Either metal rods driven into the wood or a mechanical clamping device (perhaps hydraulic or pneumatically activated).


thresher

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *terh₁-der.?
Proto-Germanic *þreskaną
Old English þrescan
Middle English threschen
Middle English -er
Middle English thresshere
English thresher
From Middle English thresshere; equivalent to thresh + -er. The shark's tail is thought to resemble the implement.

etymon

(agriculture, historical) A now-obsolete hand tool for threshing, also called a flail.


magnifying glass

en-noun

magnifying glass (plural magnifying glasses)

The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.

2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:

Faced with this situation, the arrival of the Covid19 pandemic in late winter/early spring 2020 showed the real situation of the country, its fragility and the challenges it faces. Thus, analysis of the impact of Covid19 on Tunisia offers a useful magnifying glass to understand the path of Tunisia from the 2011 revolution to the present.

2021, Renata Pepicelli, “The Unfinished Transition. The Post-revolutionary Path of Tunisia and the Test of Covid19. A Historical and Socio-Economic Perspective”, in Francesca Maria Corrao, Riccardo Redaelli, editors, States, Actors and Geopolitical Drivers in the Mediterranean: Perspectives on the New Centrality in a Changing Region, Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, page 284:

An instrument made of convex glass, used to magnify.


colposcope

Any of several forms of speculum or endoscope used to examine the tissues of the vagina and cervix.


ripple

ripples (plural)
reeple (alternative)
riple (alternative)

Compare German Low German Repel, Dutch repel, German Riffel, extended forms (with instrumental or diminutive -le) of Low German Repe (“ripple”), Dutch repe (“ripple”). Compare also Dutch repen, German reffen, Swedish repa (“to beat; ripple”).
The verb is from Middle English ripplen, rypelen. Compare Low German repelen, Dutch repelen, German riffeln.

(textiles) An implement, with teeth like those of a comb, for removing the seeds and seed vessels from flax, broom corn, etc.

гребен

implement for removing the seeds from flax


grapple

From Middle English *grapple, *graple, from Old French grappil (“a ship's grapple”) (compare Old French grappin (“hook”)), from Old French grape, grappe, crape (“hook”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *krappō (“hook”), from Proto-Indo-European *grep- (“hook”), *gremb- (“crooked, uneven”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, bend, twist”). See further at grape. Influenced in some senses by grapple (“seize”, verb) (see above).

derived

A tool with claws or hooks which is used to catch or hold something.

(nautical) A device consisting of iron claws, attached to the end of a rope, used for grasping and holding an enemy ship prior to boarding; a grappling iron.

(nautical) A grapnel (“type of anchor”).


ultramicroscope

a microscope that uses bright illumination against a black background to view small particles


running iron

So flagrantly did these gentlemen miswield the “running iron,” that several States eventually forbade its use by anybody, and everywhere its mere possession gave rise to suspicion.

2007, Philip Ashton Rollins, The Cowboy, page 183:

A branding iron which is not bent into the shape of the mark but rather requires the user to write the desired brand (and thus allows writing any brand).


harrow

From Middle English harrow, harrowe, haro, from Old French haro, harou, harau, harol, from Frankish *harot, *hara (“here; hither”), from *hēr. Akin to Old Saxon herod, Old High German herot, Middle Dutch hare.

Harrow, the flames, which me consume (said hee) / Ne can be quencht, within my secret bowels bee.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

(obsolete) A call for help, or of distress, alarm etc.


spancel

From Dutch or Low German spansel, from spannen (“to bind, harness”).

a rope or fetter used to hobble a horse or other animal


athanor

From Arabic التَنُّور (at-tannūr, “the baker’s oven”). The word is a doublet of tandoor.

refn

A watercolour from the collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris.

der

You may also be inſtructed, That when you are diſtilling of Aqua fort. and that the Coals in the Athanor are almoſt gone out (which happens hardly in 10 or 11 hours) then lift up the Cover from the Athanor, make it full again with Coals and cover it, elſe the Fire will go out, and all will be cold, as Oportunity it ſelf will teach thee and make thee to remember.

1686, Lazarus Erckern [i.e., Lazarus Ercker], “How Aqua Fortis is to be Distilled in an Iron Jug or Pot”, in John Pettus, transl., Fleta Minor. The Lavvs of Art and Nature, in Knowing, Judging, Assaying, Fining, Refining and Inlarging the Bodies of Confin’d Metals. In Two Parts. […], London: Printed for and sold by Stephen Bateman […], →OCLC, part I, book II (Of Golden Oars), page 167:

The Furnace call'd an Athanor, was invented to keep a conſtant Heat for Fourteen Days, a Month, Twelve Months, or more, as ſome Chymical Operations require, which may be augmented or decreaſed, by opening or ſhutting the Regiſters, as you pleaſe, and according to the Magnitude of the Tower, requires no Attendance above once in twenty four, fourty eight, or one hundred Hours.

1703, George Wilson, “The Introduction”, in A Compleat Course of Chymistry. […], 2nd edition, London: Printed for W[illia]m Turner […]; and R. Basset […], →OCLC:

The long and tedious operations of the ancient chemists rendered it a desirable requisite, that their fires should be constantly supplied with fuel in proportion to the consumption. The athanor furnace was peculiarly adapted to this purpose.

1866, [Andrew Ure], “ATHANOR or ACANOR”, in Henry Watts, A Dictionary of Chemistry and the Allied Branches of Other Sciences. … In Five Volumes, volumes I (Abichite–Conglomerate), London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 430:

The Magus should not, therefore, live exclusively in his laboratory, amidst his Athanor, his elixirs, and his pantacles. […] A magical operation should invariably be followed by a rest of equal duration and an analoguous diversion, but one contrary in its object.

1886, Éliphas Lévi [pseudonym; Alphonse Louis Constant], Arthur Edward Waite, “Magical Equilibrium”, in The Mysteries of Magic: A Digest of the Writings of Éliphas Lévi: […], London: George Redway, […], →OCLC, page 81:

Without sincere prayer nothing permanent or divine could be accomplished. Hence while the Operation of the Mass is in progress, and the fire in the Athanor becomes more intense, an enthusiastic invocation, either astral or audible, should be recited.

1972, Israel Regardie, The Tree of Life: A Study in Magic, 1st paperback edition, York Beach, Me.: Samuel Weiser, Inc., published 2000, →ISBN, page 254:

Incomprehensible additions and deletions made by dazed scribes suffering from poor candlelight, weak from unbalanced diets, given to sudden attacks of vertigo as they struggled through the night with pen and paper in vaulted medieval laboratories, hopelessly trying to record the great doctor's mutterings, his whispered arcane wisdom that rose with the fumes spiraling up from his vast array of pelicans and alembics, crucibles and athanors.

1978, Edward Whittemore, “Nubar Wallenstein”, in Jerusalem Poker, New York, N.Y.: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Open Road Media, 2013, →ISBN, part 3:

(historical) A furnace or stove designed and used to maintain uniform heat, primarily used by alchemists.


pecker

From Middle English pekker, equivalent to peck (“to pick at something in the manner of a bird”) + -er (“forming agent nouns”).

af

The women with short peckers or parers,... of a foote long and about fiue inches in breadth: doe onely breake the vpper part of the ground to rayse vp the weedes, grasse, & old stubbes of corne stalkes with their rootes... For their corne,... with a pecker they make a hole, wherein they put foure graines.

1588, Thomas Hariot, A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, sig. C2:

Let sturdy youths their pointed peckers ply,
Till the rais'd roots loose on the surface lie.

1782, J. Scott, Poetical Works, page 119:

A small narrow hoe or pecker... A small hand-pecker.

1848, Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, 9 ii. 551:

Pecker, small pickaxe for cutting furze.

1948, M. Carbery, E. Grey, Hertfordshire Heritage, page 120:

Someone who or something that pecks, striking or piercing in the manner of a bird's beak or bill, particularly:

(uncommon or regional) Any tool used in a pecking fashion, particularly kinds of hoes or pickaxes.


icepick

icepicks (plural)
ice pick (alternative)
ice-pick (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-icepick.wav

A pointed tool, shaped like an awl, used for breaking ice.


frow

Alternative spelling of froe (“cleaving tool”).


lancet

From Middle English launcet, from Old French lancete, a diminutive of lance. By surface analysis, lance + -et.

A small, sterile single-use needle used to draw a drop of blood for testing, as with a glucometer.


bellows

From Middle English belwes, plural of belu, belwe, a northern form of beli, from Old English bæliġ, northern form of bielġ, from Proto-Germanic *balgiz. Compare German Balg. See also belly.
For the pronunciation /ˈbɛl.əs/, compare bodice, gallows.

Any flexible container or enclosure, as one used to cover a moving joint.


straightener

A pair of metal tongs with heated ceramic plates used for straightening hair.

(slang) A prearranged fight to settle a dispute.

'Injection or not, the bloody thing won't move an inch with juice and it ain't got any. Yeah and here comes the law.'
Cool as a cucumber, Ernie said, 'Leave him to me. I'll give him a straightener.'

2001, William F. Gray, The Villain, page 65:


conduit bender

A tool used in conjunction with a very long lever to bend angles in a conduit that electric wires are placed into.


forceps

en-noun

forceps (plural forceps or forcipes or forcepses)

forceps (plural)
forcipes (plural)
forcepses (plural)

An instrument used in surgery or medical procedures for grasping and holding objects, similar to tongs or pincers.

щипцы́

хирурги́ческие


dredger

In the kitchen Mrs. Piper was busy with a flour dredger, a rolling pin, and a basin of dough.

1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, →OCLC, page 32:

A container with a perforated lid, used to sprinkle sugar or flour.


plumb bob

plumb bobs (plural)
plumb-bob (alternative)

A metal weight attached to the end of a plumb line.


plumb line

plumb lines (plural)
plumbline (alternative)

From Middle English plumblyne, equivalent to plumb + line.

A cord with a weight attached, used to produce a vertical line; a plummet.


toolmaker

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-toolmaker.wav

A skilled machinist who makes and repairs tools.


pincers

From Middle English pynsours, from Old French pinceure, pinchure, from pincier (“to pinch”).

Milk formed their chief diet, and this they were supposed to imbibe from the witch herself, from a third "teat" which had been made beneath the arm by a nip from the Devil's pincers.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 107:

A gripping tool, pivoted like a pair of scissors, but with blunt jaws.


clearer

/ˈklɪəɹə(ɹ)/

A tool by which the hemp for lines and twines, used by sailmakers, is finished.


T-square

From its shape, resembling a capital letter T.

A rule with a short perpendicular crosspiece at one end, used by draughtsmen to draw parallel lines.

丁字尺

A sex position whereby the receiving partner lies on the back with knees up and legs apart while the penetrating partner lies on either side perpendicular to the receiver, with the penetrating partner's hips under the arch formed by receiver's legs.


Allen wrench

Allen, the name of Allen Manufacturing Company, and wrench.

hex head wrench
hex head wrench#English:_Q16953


hex head wrench

hex head wrench (plural hex head wrenches)

A screwdriver with a hexagonal head, usually in the form of a handle and head at right angles with both ends offering a hexagonal end.


Allen key

Allen + key, from the name of the Allen Manufacturing Company.


hex key

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tweezers

17th century (1645–55): plural of tweeser (on the model of nippers, pincers, pliers or scissors), from obsolete tweese (“case for small instruments”) (or alternatively, alteration of plural form tweeses), aphetic form of earlier etweese (plural of etwee), from French étuis, plural of étui (“case, box, cover”) (from Old French estui (“container, prison”, noun), derivative of étuier (earlier spelling, estuier (“to shut up, guard, keep, preserve, save, enclose, place in a cover”), probably from Vulgar Latin *estudiāre (“to keep, treat with care”) or *studiāre, from Latin studēre (“to care about”).

der

A small pincerlike instrument, usually made of metal, used for handling or picking up small objects (such as postage stamps), plucking out (plucking) hairs, pulling out slivers, etc.

pincetë

small pincer-like instrument, usually made of metal, used for handling small objects


ice scraper

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-ice scraper.wav

a handheld tool for removing ice from car windows etc


rebate plane

a hand plane designed for cutting rebates in wood


quern

querns (plural)
curn (alternative)
kern (alternative)
quirn (alternative)

From Middle English quern, cwerne, from Old English cweorn (“quern, hand-mill, mill”), from Proto-Germanic *kwernō (“millstone”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂wō (“heavy stone”), from *gʷréh₂us (“heavy”). Cognate with Tocharian B kärweñe, Lithuanian girna, Russian жёрнов (žórnov, “millstone”).

inh

She is shaking in ingredients from various small bottles and querns produced from the pockets of her robes, and from the drawer in the wooden table.

MacKie has noted that querns that were in use in Scotland up to the present day were about 450mm—600mm in diameter and that the lower stone was completely perforated to make it adjustable (MacKie 1987, 5).

2005, Anne Crone, Ewan Campbell, A Crannog of the First Millennium, AD: Excavations by Jack Scott at Loch Gloshan, Argyll, 1960, page 100:

Not surprisingly, different cultures discovered the suitability of various rock types for manufacturing querns and millstones.

2009, Charles D. Hockensmith, The Millstone Industry, page 212:

A mill for grinding corn, especially a handmill made of two circular stones.


raddle

en-noun

raddle (countable and uncountable, plural raddles)

From a variation of reddle, ruddle. Related to red.


raddle

en-verb

raddle (third-person singular simple present raddles, present participle raddling, simple past and past participle raddled)

raddles (present singular third-person)
raddling (participle present)
raddled (participle past)
raddled (past)

raddling or working it up like basket work

1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC:


raddle

From earlier radel, redle (noun), and ruddle (verb), perhaps a transposition of hurdle or an alteration of riddle (“curtain”).

A long, flexible stick, rod, or branch, interwoven with others between upright posts or stakes, in making a kind of hedge or fence.

A raddle - hedge is a hedge of pleached or plash'd or twisted or wreathed twigs or boughs

1815, Charles Richardson, Illustrations of English Philology:

An instrument consisting of a wooden bar, with a row of upright pegs set in it, used by domestic weavers to keep the warp of a proper width and prevent tangling when it is wound upon the beam of the loom.


scutch

en-noun

scutch (countable and uncountable, plural scutches)

From Middle English *scucchen, from Anglo-Norman escucher, from Vulgar Latin *excuticāre.

(countable) A wooden implement shaped like a large knife used to separate the valuable fibres of flax or hemp by beating them and scraping from it the woody or coarse portions.

мъналка

knife-shaped tool used to separate woody fiber from flax or hemp

the labourers went peacefully about their usual employments, some driving teams of ponderous horses at the plough, others burning scutch and brambles, the rubbish of field and forest.

1897, Vincent J. Leatherdale, A Lady of Wales:

(uncountable) The woody fibre of flax or hemp; the refuse of scutched flax or hemp.

(countable) A bricklayer's small picklike tool with two cutting edges (or prongs) for dressing stone or cutting and trimming bricks.


shadoof

shadoofs (plural)
shadouf (alternative)
shaduf (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-shadoof.wav

The shadoof can be traced back 5,400 years, or to about 3500 B. C., and the indications are that it was considered an ancient device even at that remote time. It is much like the old-fashioned well sweep, consisting of a pivoted pole, supported on two uprights, at one end of which is suspended a rope or pole with a bucket at the lower end.

1914 August, Popular Mechanics, volume 22, number 2, page 172:

An ancient device used to gather water, consisting of a pivoted stick with a bucket on the end of it.


gimlet

From Middle English gimlet etc., from Old French guinbelet, guimbelet, guibelet, probably a diminutive of the Anglo-Norman wimble, a variation of guimble (“drill”), from the Middle Low German wiemel; continued in New French as gibelet.
Cocktail either named after the tool, in reference to its penetrating effects, or British Navy surgeon Thomas Gimlette (1857–1943).

The box was close on every side, with a little door for me to go in and out, and a few gimlet holes to let in air.

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag):

I would find by the edge of that water / The collar-bone of a hare / Worn thin by the lapping of water, / And pierce it through with a gimlet and stare [...]

1917 November, W[illiam] B[utler] Yeats, “The Collar-bone of a Hare”, in The Wild Swans at Coole, Other Verses and a Play in Verse, Churchtown, Dundrum [Dublin]: The Cuala Press, →OCLC, page 3:

A small screw-tipped tool for boring holes.


crutch

From Middle English crucche, from Old English cryċċ (“crutch, staff”), from Proto-West Germanic *krukkju, from Proto-Germanic *krukjō (“crutch, staff”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewg- (“wrinkle, bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, bend”).
Cognate with Scots curche, crutch (“crutch, stilts”), Dutch kruk (“crutch”), Low German krukke, Krück (“crutch”), German Krücke (“crutch”), Swedish krycka (“crutch”). Latin crucia, crucca, croccia, crocia (“crutch”), and its descendants are ultimately from the Germanic.

der

could eat the crutch from a low flying duck

A form of pommel for a woman's saddle, consisting of a forked rest to hold the leg of the rider.

(nautical) A knee, or piece of knee timber.


crutch

en-verb

crutch (third-person singular simple present crutches, present participle crutching, simple past and past participle crutched)

crutches (present singular third-person)
crutching (participle present)
crutched (participle past)
crutched (past)

[I'll] haſten Og and Doeg to rehearſe, / Two Fools that Crutch their Feeble Senſe on Verſe; / Who by my Muſe to all ſucceeding times, / Shall live in ſpight of their own Dogrell Rhimes.

1682, [Nahum Tate; John Dryden], The Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel. A Poem. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 13:

(transitive) To support on crutches; to prop up.

After learning how to crutch at 13, he could dag 400 sheep in a day by the spring of 1965 and earned himself more than just a bit of pocket money.

2010 January 29, Emma Partridge, “Richie Foster a cut above the rest”, in Stock Journal:

(transitive) To shear the hindquarters of a sheep; to dag.


carpenter's square

en-noun

carpenter's square (plural carpenter's squares)

carpenter's squares (plural)
carpentry square (alternative)

A tool used to measure out right angles.


slane

Little McTiernan at the Door is giving out short-handl’d Peat-Cutters styl’d, by the Irish, ‘Slanes’.

(Ireland) A one-eared spade for cutting turf or peat, consisting of an iron flat-bladed head and a long wooden shaft.


leaper

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-leaper.wav

From Middle English lepere, lepare, from Old English hlēapere (“runner, leaper, dancer, courier, vagrant”), equivalent to leap + -er. Compare Saterland Frisian Lööper (“runner”), West Frisian ljepper (“leaper”), West Frisian loper (“runner”), Dutch loper (“runner”), German Läufer (“runner”), Swedish löpare (“runner”), Icelandic hlaupari (“runner”).

inh

I'm sick of getting coloring books and dollies for my birthdays, and other leapers are just as exasperated by their juvenile gifts. Another question we always get is, “When do you celebrate your birthday?” On February 29th, of course.

2003, Julietta Appleton, Clothing Optional: Sassy Essays from My First 50 Years, page 2:

A person whose birthday falls on 29 February, and thus only occurs in leap years.


landside

The freely-accessible area of an airport, outside of security, passport/immigration, and customs control.


burnisher

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-burnisher.wav

A tool used to burnish, for making smooth and shiny by rubbing.


fishhook

fishhooks (plural)
fish hook (alternative)

From Middle English fisch-hook, from Old English *fischōc (“fishhook”), equivalent to fish + hook. Cognate with Dutch vishaak (“fishhook”). In the sense of a jack (playing card), refers to the shape of the letter J on the card.

The two basic types of fishhooks are almost equally represented within the site, with composite fishhooks exhibiting only a slightly higher relative frequency than that of bentwoods.

1980, Dale R. Croes, Eric Blinman, editors, Hoko River: A 2500 Year Old Fishing Camp on the Northwest Coast of North America (Reports of Investigations (Washington State University. Laboratory of Anthropology); 58), Pullman, Wash.: Laboratory of Anthropology, Washington State University, →OCLC, page 141:

Others sprint off and take position — their jackal ears fully erect, their fishhook tails twitching like flags in a stiff wind.

2013 July 15, Jack Hitt, “DNA Backs Lore on Pre-Columbian Dogs”, in The New York Times:

A barbed hook, usually metal, used for fishing.


whipper snipper

en-noun

whipper snipper (plural whipper snippers)

(Australia, Canada) A string trimmer; a strimmer.


grindstone

From Middle English grind-ston, grindistan, (also as grindel-ston), equivalent to grind + stone. Cognate with Scots grindstane.

An abrasive wheel for sharpening, polishing, or grinding.


pulaski

Named from Edward C. Pulaski (1866-1931), the American ranger who designed it.

A double-ended fire-fighting tool, usually long-handled, and having an ax-blade on one side and a mattock-blade on the other.


diz

Probably from dizen, dize (“to dress with flax for spinning”), equivalent to the first element of distaff.

A diz is a tool that helps you remove fiber from a comb and create a nice length of top that is a consistent thickness and ready to spin. Many dizzes have holes of varying sizes, so that you can choose the size most appropriate for the yarn you intend to spin: a large hole for bulky yarn, a smaller hole for finer yarn.

2014, Beth Smith, The Spinner's Book of Fleece, page 118:

A tool, often a flat circle, with one or more holes for passing wool through to form roving of a specified thickness.


ball-peen hammer

ball-peen hammer (plural ball-peen hammers)

ball-peen hammers (plural)
ball-pein hammer (alternative)
ball pein hammer (alternative)
ball peen hammer (alternative)

A hammer having, besides the normal flat head, an opposite, rounded or peening head.


graver

From Middle English gravere, graver, gravoure, from Old English græfere, grafere (“graver; engraver; sculptor”), equivalent to grave (“to engrave”) + -er. Cognate with Dutch graveur, German Graveur, Danish gravør, Swedish gravör, Icelandic grafari.

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-graver.wav

1852-1854, Charles Tomlinson, Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts and Manufactures
The graver, in ploughing furrows in the surface of the copper, raises corresponding ridges or burrs.

[…] the parts within the contorno are drawn by the incisions of the graver […]

a. 1798, James Barry, Observations on different works of art in France and Ital:

(obsolete) a carver, sculptor, or engraver


needlenose pliers

A variety of pliers with long, narrow extensions of the gripping faces, used to reach into narrow spaces.

尖嘴鉗 /尖嘴钳

a variety of pliers with long, narrow extensions


pritchel

Alteration (influenced by pritch) of prickle.

A metal punch or shaping tool with a round shank, designed to fit in a pritchel hole in an anvil.


pritchel

en-verb

pritchel (third-person singular simple present pritchels, present participle pritchelling or (US) pritcheling, simple past and past participle pritchelled or (US) pritcheled)

pritchels (present singular third-person)
pritchelling (participle present)
pritcheling (US participle present)
pritchelled (participle past)
pritchelled (past)
pritcheled (US participle past)
pritcheled (US past)


cold chisel

So called because it was used for cutting cold metal, as distinguished from a blacksmith's chisel for cutting hot iron.

Meanwhile, Macpherson stood just outside the door, holding a cold chisel which he had taken from a dungaree pocket […] and there Mr. Willison found him.

1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 2, in Well Tackled!:

A narrow chisel, made of hardened, tempered steel, used for cutting stone etc.


nail clipper

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A mechanical device used to trim fingernails and toenails.

A mechanical device used to trim animals' claws.


nail trimmer

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-nail trimmer.wav

a mechanical device used to trim fingernails and toenails


scrubbing brush

en-noun

scrubbing brush (plural scrubbing brushes)

scrubbing brushes (plural)
scrub brush (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-scrubbing brush.wav

A short brush with stiff bristles, usually handheld, used for scrubbing floors etc. Sometimes with a broom handle like a push broom.


caulking iron

caulking irons (plural)
calking iron (alternative)

a tool, rather like a chisel, used to caulk a ship, tighten seams in ironwork and other things


clipper

Dutch: (nautical) klipper, klipperaak m or f

From Middle English clipper, equivalent to clip (“cut, shorten”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns). The type of sailing ship is probably also from clip, in the sense of “move or run rapidly”. Perhaps influenced by Middle Dutch klepper (“swift horse”), from kleppen (“to clap”), which is onomatopoeic.

suffix

er<id:agent noun><pos:suffix forming agent nouns>

(chiefly in the plural) A tool used for clipping something, such as hair, coins, or fingernails.


machine tool

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-machine tool.wav

(machining, manufacturing) A tool, typically a power-driven machine and typically stationary, used especially for machining (removing hard material via cutting, grinding, or other subtractive processes) and (more broadly) for any mix of subtractive, forming/stamping, or additive work.


drill press

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-drill press.wav

A machine tool in which a rotating cutter, usually a twist drill, is pushed into a workpiece to produce a hole.


spirit level

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-spirit level.wav

(tool) A tool employing a chamber with a colored liquid (usually alcohol, hence spirit) and an air bubble, used to determine a horizontal or vertical reference line.


sounder

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sounder.wav

(nautical) A device for making soundings at sea.


bench dog

A peg placed in a hole in a workbench to clamp a workpiece in place


fishtail

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-fishtail.wav

From Middle English fisch tayle, equivalent to fish + tail.


mandrel

From French mandrin, probably from Vulgar Latin *mamphurinum , from Latin mamphur (“a bow drill”), ultimately from Oscan or Ancient Greek μαννοφόρον (mannophóron, “wearing a collar”), from μανά (maná, “collar”) + φέρω (phérō, “to bear”); first element cognate with Latin monile (“collar”).

der

This socket forms the starting point of the piercing operation, enabling the mandrel to center itself on the work.

1920, Lester Gray French, Machinery, volume 26, page 491:

When inserted into the staple, the outside of the mandrel should fit the inside of the staple exactly.

1961, Robert Sprenkle, David Ledet, The Art of Oboe Playing, page 46:

A tool or component of a tool that guides, grips or clamps something, such as a workpiece to be machined, a machining tool or a part while it is moved.


scooper

The avocet, a bird that scoops up the mud to obtain food.

A journalist who obtains a scoop, or exclusive.

(aviation, firefighting, informal) A type of air tanker waterbomber airplane, which is capable of landing on water, and directly scooping up water to fill its tanks, by skimming the water's surface with scoops delopyed.


polisher

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-polisher.wav

A tool that makes something smooth or shiny.


sander

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(historical) A small device resembling a salt shaker but containing sand that was shaken over a document to remove excess ink.


excavator

A curette used to scrape out pathological material.


battledore

battledores (plural)
battledoor (alternative)

[ˈbæɾɫ̩ˌdoɹ]

From Middle English batildore, batylledore, batildure, batyldoure, batyndore, probably as a blend of Middle English betel (“bat, club”) and Old Occitan batedor (“beater, bat”).

There is a large basin near the fountain, where numbers of women may be seen every day, kneeling at the edge of the water, and beating the clothes with heavy pieces of wood in the shape of battledores.

1563, John Foxe, chapter 21, in The Book of Martyrs:

The laundry process of the time [1665] consisted of boiling textiles with lye or soap and then beating them with a battledore, a rustic version of a cricket bat.

2018 October 25, Matthew Taub, “Why England Once Forced Everyone to Be Buried in Wool”, in Atlas Obscura:

(historical) A wooden paddle-shaped bat or beetle used to wash clothes by beating, stirring, or smoothing them.


grease gun

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A levered or plungered device for forcing grease into machinery.


spreader

Ellen put grass seed on the lawn with a seed spreader.

James used a spreader to butter her bagel.

A knife or spatula used to distribute a substance such as butter or jelly.


nutpick

nutpicks (plural)
nut pick (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-nutpick.wav

(US) A sharp tool used for digging the edible portion out of a nut.


slicker

From slick (“to smooth or make slick”) + -er.

A two-handled tool for finishing concrete or mortar; a darby.


bottle brush

bottle brushes (plural)
bottlebrush (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-bottle brush.wav

A brush, having bristles that radiate from a central stem, used for cleaning bottles.


caulker

caulkers (plural)
cauker (alternative)
calker (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-caulker.wav

A tool used for caulking ships; a caulking iron.


paperknife

paperknives (plural)
paper-knife (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-paperknife.wav

A knife for cutting paper or opening envelopes.


billhook

billhooks (plural)
bill-hook (alternative)
bill hook (alternative)

→ Irish: bileog

→ Welsh: bilwg

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-billhook.wav

Earliest use in weapon (and later, agricultural) sense, bill (“a bladed pike (obsolete)”) + hook; other senses formed anew from various meanings of bill.

compound

(weaponry) 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.


snuffer

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-snuffer.wav

If the burning snuff happens to get out of the snuffers, you have a chance that it may fall into a dish of soup.

1731 (date written; published 1745), [Jonathan] Swift, Directions to Servants […], London: […] R[obert] Dodsley, […], and M. Cooper, […], →OCLC:

A device made to extinguish (snuff out) a candle.

A person who uses snuff (the tobacco product).

The participant in a snuff film who kills another (the snuffee).


candle snuffer

candle snuffers (plural)
candlesnuffer (alternative)
snuffer (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-candle snuffer.wav


rounder

A tool for making an edge or surface round.


staple remover

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-staple remover.wav

A device with two jawlike pincers which is used to remove staples.


coulter

Inherited from Middle English culter, from Old English culter, from Latin culter (“a knife”). For the phonetic development, see poultry.

Holonyms: plough, plow < implement

I lately left a furrow, one or twayne, / Unplough'd, the which my coulter hath not cleft […].

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

What is it but a servitude like that impos'd by the Philistims, not to be allow'd the sharpning of our own axes and coulters, but we must repair from all quarters to twenty licencing forges.

With colters bright the rushy sward bisect, / And in new veins the gushing rills direct […].

1791, Erasmus Darwin, The Economy of Vegetation, J. Johnson, page 150:

A cutter, consisting of a blade in either knife form or disk form, attached to the ploughbeam of a plough to cut the sward, in front of the ploughshare and mouldboard.


tooler

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-tooler.wav


jointer

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-jointer.wav

Any of various tools used to construct or finish joints, especially:

(woodworking) The largest kind of plane used by a joiner.

A bent piece of iron for riveting two stones together.


twibill

twibills (plural)
twibil (alternative)
trybill (alternative)
twilbil (alternative)
twybil (alternative)
twyvil (alternative)

From Middle English twibill, from Old English twibill, from twi- (“double”) + bill (“edge, blade”), see also billhook.

(dialectal, England) A reaping hook, especially for cutting beans and peas.


blowtorch

blowtorches (plural)
blow torch (alternative)

/ˈbləʊˌtɔːtʃ/

A tool which projects a controlled stream of a highly flammable gas over a spark in order to produce a controlled flame.


edger

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-edger.wav

A tool that is used to trim the edges of a lawn.


angle grinder

A usually hand-held grinder which uses a pair of internal gears to place the rotational axis of the grinding or cutting wheel perpendicular to that of the driving motor.


flatiron

flatirons (plural)
flat iron (alternative)
flat-iron (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-flatiron.wav

A simple iron (for pressing laundry) which is heated on a stove.

A pair of metal tongs with heated ceramic plates used for straightening hair.

(especially referring to the shape of a building) a quadrilateral with two parallel sides, one of which is very short, and whose non-parallel sides are longer than either parallel side.

(geomorphology) A steeply sloping triangular landform created by the differential erosion of a steeply dipping, erosion-resistant layer of rock overlying softer strata.


flatiron

flat iron (alternative)
flat-iron (alternative)

a flatiron building

The street down which Warwick had come intersected Front Street at a sharp angle in front of the old hotel, forming a sort of flatiron block at the junction, known as Liberty Point

1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars:


jackhammer

/ˈd͡ʒækˌhæmɚ/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-jackhammer.wav

A portable percussive power tool that combines a hammer and chisel used to drill or break hard matter, for instance rock or concrete.


leaf-cutter

leaf-cutters (plural)
leaf cutter (alternative)
leafcutter (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-leaf-cutter.wav


depressor

en-noun

depressor (plural depressors or (muscle) depressores)

depressors (plural)
depressores (plural)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-depressor.wav

An instrument used to push something out of the way during an examination.


sile

en-verb

sile (third-person singular simple present siles, present participle siling, simple past and past participle siled)

siles (present singular third-person)
siling (participle present)
siled (participle past)
siled (past)

From Middle English silen, sylen, from Middle Low German silen ("to let off water, filter, strain"; > Low German silen, sielen), equivalent to sie (“to filter, strain”) + -le. Cognate with German sielen (“let off water, filter”), Swedish sila (“to strain, filter, sift”), German Siel (“drain, sewer, sluice”).

cog

(intransitive, UK dialectal) To settle down; calm or compose oneself.

(intransitive, UK dialectal, Northern England) To pour with rain.


peavy

peavies (plural)
peavee (alternative)
peavey (alternative)
peevee (alternative)

After Joseph Peavey, a blacksmith from Maine in the United States of America.

A tool used to manipulate logs, having a thick wooden handle, a steel point, and a curved hooked arm. Similar to a cant-hook, but shorter and stouter, and with a pointed end.


gambrel

Uncertain, perhaps from Old Northern French gamberel, from gambe (“leg”).

Within two hours the hog - killed, scalded, and scraped of its hair - was hanging pale from a big tree limb by a gambrel stick run through the tendons of its hind feet

1997, Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 307:

(chiefly historical and obsolete outside dialects) A bar, usually metal, with a central loop and a hook at each end, used to hang a carcass for butchering.


swingle

The noun is from Middle English swingel, from Old English swingel, swingelle (“whip, scourge”), equivalent to swing + -le. Related to Middle Dutch swingel, swengel, Dutch zwingel, zwengel. Doublet of swingel.
The verb is from Middle English swingelen, from the noun. Related to Middle Dutch swingelen, swengelen.

(textiles) An implement used to separate the fibres of flax by beating them; a scutch.


puller

From Middle English puller, pullere, equivalent to pull + -er.

A tool for pulling, such as a bearing puller.


cytometer

A graduated microscope slide or similar small vessel used for counting or measuring cells

An automated device used for the same purpose


riveter

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The beam couldn't support the weight of the riveter, so the workers were riveting by hand.


sarcle

en-verb

sarcle (third-person singular simple present sarcles, present participle sarcling, simple past and past participle sarcled)

sarcles (present singular third-person)
sarcling (participle present)
sarcled (participle past)
sarcled (past)


moldboard

moldboards (plural)
mouldboard (alternative)

Holonyms: plough, plow < implement

A curved piece of metal on a plough, following behind the ploughshare, that flips the soil over.

skouarn

curved piece of metal on a plow or bulldozer

An analogous part of a bulldozer that clears dirt from the blade.


hemmer

A tool for turning over the edge of sheet metal to make a hem.


drag bit

A drill bit usually designed for use in soft formation, such as sand clay, or some soft rock. Uses include drilling water wells, that consists of a drill pipe connector attached to blades on the end. The cutting edge of the drag bit is often tungsten carbide.


picklock

Marry, sir, he hath offended the law; and, sir, we take him to be a thief too, sir, for we have found upon him, sir, a strange picklock, which we have sent to the deputy.

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:

1664-1667, Jeremy Taylor, Dissuasive from Popery
a picklock of secrets


graduated cylinder

en-noun

graduated cylinder (plural graduated cylinders)

(chemistry) An item of glass laboratory equipment consisting of a tall, narrow cylinder with a scale, or graduations marked up its length, which is used to measure liquids and solutions fairly accurately, but not precisely.


turnscrew

→ Welsh: tyrnsgriw

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Striking the turnscrew through the lead with a swift downward stab, which made me wince, he made a small hole, which was, however, big enough to admit the point of the saw.


church key

church keys (plural)
churchkey (alternative)

See Wikipedia at church key § Etymology.

Nobody was killed, but a guy from the rival gang was supposed to have had his eyes popped out with a church key.

2008, Ted J. Gouin, Coco Colored Boy, page 36:

"[…]Once you didn't need a church key to open a can of beer much anymore, they didn't need me to go around handing out church keys anymore either."

2009, Jim Lehrer, Eureka: A Novel, page 81:

The triangle end of the church key was the most important part in the early days. To get into the cans, drinkers would create two triangular Vs in the top of the can (opposite each other to let air in so the beer would pour out easily) and away they went. The other end of the church key was used to pop off the “crown cork” that is still in use to seal glass beer bottles today.

2011, Bobby Mercer, ManVentions: From Cruise Control to Cordless Drills, pages 58–59:

An opener, typically with both can opener and bottle opener features, having a triangular tip that pierces the can.

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see church, key.


fire axe

A special type of axe used by firefighters, typically featuring a pick-shaped pointed poll (area of the head opposite the cutting edge) and in a vivid color to make it easily visible during an emergency.


nail scissors

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-nail scissors.wav

Small, usually curved scissors for cutting the fingernails and toenails.


hole punch

hole punches (plural)
holepunch (alternative especially noun)
hole-punch (alternative especially verb)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-hole punch.wav

A tool that is used to make holes in stationery for ease of filing.


stithy

stithies (plural)
stiddy (alternative)
stythy (alternative)

From Middle English stithy, ultimately from Old Norse steði.

how to forge his sword upon the stithy, as well as how to use it in battle

1825 June 22, [Walter Scott], Tales of the Crusaders. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:

As foul as Vulcan's stithy.

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:


stithy

en-verb

stithy (third-person singular simple present stithies, present participle stithying, simple past and past participle stithied)

stithies (present singular third-person)
stithying (participle present)
stithied (participle past)
stithied (past)
stiddy (alternative)
stythy (alternative)


set square

A right angle tool used to determine if two surfaces join at a 90-degree angle, composed of two arms, usually made from metal.


pike pole

A particular kind of long tool with various uses in firefighting and similar in timber rafting

баго́р

tool — see also setting pole, gaff, hook


Swiss Army knife

en-noun

Swiss Army knife (plural Swiss Army knives)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Swiss Army knife.wav

Swiss Armed Forces
Swiss Army knife
Swiss Army knife#History

From the prominent (although not exclusive) association of this type of knife with officers of the Swiss Army; see Swiss Army knife § History for details.

Any of a class of multi-function pocket knives or multitools, having a blade and various tools, such as screwdrivers and can openers.


ratchet wrench

ratchet wrench (plural ratchet wrenches)

A wrench, implementing a ratchet mechanism, usually used with a set of sockets to engage the head of a bolt or similar.


French curve

A drafting template having edges of various curvatures, used for drawing smoothly-curved lines.


hatchel

hatchels (plural)
hackle (alternative)
heckle (alternative)
hetchel (alternative)

From Middle English hechele, of West Germanic origin, related to the root of hook. Compare hackle.

One end of the bundle being hatchelled, it is turned round, and the other is treated in the same way; and the process is repeated on finer hatchels.

1864, George Ripley and Charles Anderson Dana [eds.], The New American Cyclopædia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge VII: “Edward–Fueros” (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 443 & 445 Broadway; London: 16 Little Britain), ‘Flax’, page 554


bubble level

A tool employing a chamber with a colored liquid and an air bubble, used to determine if a surface is level horizontally, vertically, or at a 45-degree angle.


toilet brush

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-toilet brush.wav

Two floors above, a young Sellafield employee sat in a gaming chair, working at a laptop with a joystick. He was manoeuvring an ROV fitted with a toilet brush – “a regular brush, bought at the store,” he said, “just kind of reinforced with a bit of plastic tube”.

December 15 2022, Samanth Subramanian, “Dismantling Sellafield: the epic task of shutting down a nuclear site”, in The Guardian:

A brush used to clean a toilet (the appliance which accepts human waste).


riffler

A mechanical device consisting of a metal box with a series of vertical slats through which material is poured and randomly divided into two samples; this process is repeated to obtain a small representative sample of a bulk material.

A curved file used in carving wood and marble.


spokeshave

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-spokeshave.wav

A hand tool, mainly for woodworking, used to shape and smooth rods and shafts; often used in carving wheel spokes, chair legs, or arrows.


muddler

A tool used in muddling, used to mash and mix.


head-scratcher

head-scratchers (plural)
head scratcher (alternative)
headscratcher (alternative)

/ˈhɛdˌskɹæt͡ʃɚ/

From head + scratcher. Literal sense from 1873, figurative from 1971.

2004, Kelley Hays-Gilpin - Ambiguous Images: Gender and Rock Art (ISBN number 0759100659) page 133.
Her aunt's husband or her grandfather brings a head scratcher. "If the maid scratched her hair or body with her fingers during these days of observance, her hair would fall out."

(literally) A device used to scratch the head.


darby

Uncertain; possibly from the town of Derby.

A specialized tool used to smooth and level the surface of wet concrete, consisting of a stiff wedge or triangle of wood or metal.


yarringle

(obsolete) A historic instrument for winding yarn, no longer used.


pipe tong

A tool that uses a scissor action to exert pressure on a pipe or other cylindrical object in order to lift or handle the object. Normally used with a crane or other power equipment.

A hand tool consisting of a lever that ends in a toothed surface and an attached chain or strap. In use, the pipe is squeezed between the chain and the teeth, thus gripping the pipe. This version is used more for threading pipe sections together.


utility knife

A cutting tool that has a thin interchangeable blade that (often) retracts or folds into the handle.


nail gun

nail guns (plural)
nailgun (alternative)

Downing the drink in a single gulp, I move over to the Anatolian white-oak armoire where I keep a brand-new nail gun I bought last week at a hardware store near my office in Wall Street. After I've slipped on a pair of black leather gloves, I make sure the nail gun is loaded.

1991, Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho, London: Picador, →ISBN, page 244:

A power tool used to drive nails into a surface easily. It is powered pneumatically, electrically, or in some cases with a propellant cartridge; conceptually akin to air guns and firearms.


ice axe

An axe used by mountaineers to cut footholds in the ice.


hayfork

Creaking leather and the snorting of mules, snatches of off-key ballads, the clop of hooves and the patter of bare soles, the rattle of hayforks and lances.

2007 March 18, Michael Chabon, “‘Gentlemen of the Road’”, in New York Times:

A tool used for moving hay; a pitchfork.


flow cell

A part of a flow cytometer in which a stream of cells is aligned to pass one at a time through a light beam


haircutter

Any of various mechanical or electrical devices used to cut hair.


mamoty

mamoties (plural)
mamooty (alternative)
mamotty (alternative)
momatty (alternative)

Alteration of Tamil மண்வெட்டி (maṇveṭṭi).

der

Tamil மண்வெட்டி (maṇveṭṭi)

(India, Sri Lanka) A kind of hoe used for digging, especially for coffee planting.


power tool

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Any of a wide class of tools powered by a motor (usually an electric motor); most especially such tools as are handheld, portable, and not stationary.


bush hammer

A square-headed hammer with spikes used in stoneworking to either even the surface before polishing, or give it a pockmarked and weathered aspect.


punty

punties (plural)
punte (alternative)
puntee (alternative)
ponty (alternative)
pontil (alternative)
pontil rod (alternative)
puntil (alternative)
puntel (alternative)

1662, from French pontil, from Italian pontello or puntello, diminutive of punto, from Latin punctum (“a point”). Doublet of puntillo and pointel.

(glassblowing) A metal rod used in the glassblowing process. After a glass vessel has been blown to approximate size and the bottom of the piece has been finalized, the rod, which is tipped with a wad of hot glass, is attached to the bottom of the vessel to hold it while the top is finalized. It often leaves an irregular or ring-shaped scar on the base when removed, called the pontil mark.


matapee

(Caribbean) A yuca strainer or press (sebucan) in the form of a tube of basketry hung from a hook and compressed by stretching the lower end with a pole, used for expressing prussic acid out of yuca pulp.


try square

A tool used to measure if a piece of wood is at right angle; a carpenter's square.


surform

Genericized trademark from a brand name, purportedly a blend of surface and form.

This job calls for a surform.

This job calls for a surform file.

(sometimes attributive) A tool with which one grates, rasps, planes, or shaves material, especially wood, to form its surface.


multitool

multitools (plural)
multi-tool (alternative)

A portable hand tool that combines several individual functions in a single assembly or body.

Any of a class of folding or telescoping tools with a plier head as the central implement and with sets of peripheral implements (typically knife blades, screwdrivers, files, saws, can openers, bottle openers, scissors, and so on).

Any similar tool with some other central implement (such as shears) or with no central implement, but sharing the themes otherwise.

Any of a class of monolithic tools with various holes and edges that act as the multiple implements.

An oscillating power tool that can perform multiple functions with different attachments.


safety razor

A razor, designed for safety, that protects the skin from all but the very edge of the blade.


long arm

A pole tool used for handling things too far away to reach.


wire cutters

en-noun

wire cutters pl (normally plural, singular wire cutters)

A hand tool resembling pliers, intended for cutting wires.


hedge trimmer

hedge trimmers (plural)
hedge-trimmer (alternative)

A gardening tool or machine used for trimming hedges.


reaping hook

reaping hooks (plural)
reaphook (alternative)
reap hook (alternative)
reaping-hook (alternative)

A sickle, particularly a small one with a short handle used for cutting grass or crops.


bench grinder

A grinder, typically with a pair of grinding wheels (one at each end of the motor shaft) that is designed to be permanently mounted on a workbench.


barking iron

1807, a Society of Gentlemen, The Complete Farmer: Or, General Dictionary of Agriculture 5th edition
With this barking iron, the peeler is enabled to thrust forwards by the operation of both his arms, in separating the strong bark of the bodies of the trees

(obsolete, especially in plural) A tool used to remove the bark from trees.


adjustable spanner

adjustable spanner (plural adjustable spanners)

(British) An adjustable hand tool for tightening and loosening nuts and bolts.