about-sledge

about-sledges (plural)
about sledge (alternative)
aboutsledge (alternative)


umbrella

umbrellas (plural)
brelly (alternative UK diminutive)
brellie (alternative UK diminutive)
brolly (alternative UK diminutive)
humbrella (alternative archaic)
ombrella (alternative obsolete)
umbrello (alternative obsolete)
umbreller (alternative)

→ Igbo: mbalarị

→ Welsh: ymbarél

→ Yoruba: ọ̀bùrẹ́là

→ Tok Pisin: ambrela

Borrowed from Italian ombrella, umbrella (“parasol, sunshade”), diminutive of ombra (“shade”) (or from a Late Latin or Medieval Latin umbrella), from Latin umbra (“shadow”).

chatra

royal & religious symbol in South & East Asia

Using umbrellas for shooting a wedding party is ok, but not necessary.

2014, Michael Allen, Modern Wedding Photography, page 97:

(photography, television) An umbrella-shaped reflector with a white or silvery inner surface, used to diffuse a nearby light.


last

en-verb

last (third-person singular simple present lasts, present participle lasting, simple past and past participle lasted)

lasts (present singular third-person)
lasting (participle present)
lasted (participle past)
lasted (past)

From Middle English lasten, from Old English lǣstan, from Proto-West Germanic *laistijan, from Proto-Germanic *laistijaną. Cognate with German leisten (“yield”).

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

I don't know how much longer we can last without reinforcements.

(intransitive) To hold out, continue undefeated or entire.

(transitive, obsolete) To perform, carry out.


last

From Old English lǣste, Proto-Germanic *laistiz. Compare Swedish läst, German Leisten Dutch leest, Proto-Germanic *laistaz (“footprint”).

2006, Newman, Cathy, Every Shoe Tells a Story, National Geographic (September, 2006), 83,
How is an in-your-face black leather thigh-high lace-up boot with a four-inch spike heel like a man's black calf lace-up oxford? They are both made on a last, the wood or plastic foot-shaped form that leather is stretched over and shaped to make a shoe.

A tool for shaping or preserving the shape of shoes.


cane

en-noun

cane (countable and uncountable, plural canes)

From Middle English cane, canne, from Old French cane (“sugar cane”), from Latin canna (“reed”), from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna), from Akkadian 𒄀 (qanû, “reed”), from Sumerian 𒄀𒈾 (gi.na). Doublet of canna and kaneh. Related to channel and canal.

The teacher gave his student the cane for throwing paper.

The stem of such a plant adapted for use as a tool

(with "the") Corporal punishment by beating with a cane.

бой с пръчка

the cane: corporal punishment consisting of a beating with a cane

After breaking his leg, he needed a cane to walk.

The cane was undoubtedly of foreign make, for it had a solid silver ferrule at one end, which was not English hall–marked.

1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Ayrsham Mystery”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

Men that I knew around Wapatomac didn't wear high, shiny plug hats, nor yeller spring overcoats, nor carry canes with ivory heads as big as a catboat's anchor, as you might say.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter X, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

A rod-shaped tool or device, resembling the stem of the plant.

(countable) A strong short staff used for support or decoration during walking; a walking stick

(countable, glassblowing) A length of colored and/or patterned glass rod, used in the specific glassblowing technique called caneworking

(countable) A long rod often collapsible and commonly white (for visibility to other persons), used by vision impaired persons for guidance in determining their course and for probing for obstacles in their path

бастун

long collapsible rod used by vision impaired people


cane

en-verb

cane (third-person singular simple present canes, present participle caning, simple past and past participle caned)

canes (present singular third-person)
caning (participle present)
caned (participle past)
caned (past)

To strike or beat with a cane or similar implement.


jack

→ Brazilian Portuguese: jegue

→ European Portuguese: jaque

Transferred use of the personal name Jack.
(cricket: eleventh batsman): An allusion to the jack in playing cards, which follows the 10.

náłbiil bijaadbee dahnádidlohí

device for raising and supporting a heavy object

When Wardell arrived on the scene, they were surprised to find that he was unshaven, and did not look too happy. One of them remarked: "The 'Jacks' (detectives) are after you."

1935, Bernard O'Donnell, The trials of Mr. Justice Avory, page 219:

'I'd like you to meet DCI Henry Christie,' FB was saying. The older of the two jacks reached forward and gave Henry's right paw a quick tug.

(slang) A policeman or detective; (Australia) a military policeman.

en:policeman; detective; military policeman

jekker

military: coarse medieval coat of defense

(glassblowing) a tool used in manual production of glass objects (like bottles or wine glasses).

A device used to hold a boot by the heel, to assist in removing the boot.

She used a jack to lift her car and changed the tire.

A mechanical device used to raise and (temporarily) support a heavy object, now especially to lift one side of a motor vehicle when (e.g.) changing a tyre.

(obsolete) A grating device used to separate and guide the threads in a warping machine; a heck-box.


compass

From Middle English compas (“a circle, circuit, limit, form, a mathematical instrument”), from Old French compas, from Medieval Latin compassus (“a circle, a circuit”), from Latin com- (“together”) + passus (“a pace, step, later a pass, way, route”); see pass, pace.

der

[H]ow many Seas to our fore-fathers impaſſable, for want of the Compaſſe?

1625, [Samuel] Purchas, “Of the Improvement of Nauigation in Later Times, […]”, in Purchas His Pilgrimes. […], 1st part, London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], →OCLC, 2nd book, § I, page 2:

1689/1690, John Locke, On improvement of understanding
He that […] first discovered the use of the compass […] did more for the propagation of knowledge […] than those who built workhouses.

a glance at his compass would have shown him that a northerly course instead of an easterly could not be right

1890, Wilhelm Westhofen, The Forth Bridge:

A magnetic or electronic device used to determine the cardinal directions (usually magnetic or true north).

kompas

instrument to determine cardinal directions

to fix one foot of their compass wherever they please

1701, Jonathan Swift, chapter 5, in A Discourse of the Contests and Dissensions between the Nobles and the Commons in Athens and Rome:

A pair of compasses (a device used to draw circular arcs and transfer length measurements).

the compass of his argument

c. 1806–1809 (date written), William Wordsworth, “(please specify the page)”, in The Excursion, being a Portion of The Recluse, a Poem, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], published 1814, →OCLC:

There is a truth and falsehood in all propositions on this subject, and a truth and falsehood, which lie not beyond the compass of human understanding.

1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral, Oxford University Press, published 1973, section 8:

How very commonly we hear it remarked that such and such thoughts are beyond the compass of words! I do not believe that any thought, properly so called, is out of the reach of language.

The 1664 pages of this Collegiate make it the most comprehensive ever published. And its treatment of words is as nearly exhaustive as the compass of an abridged work permits.

2003, Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition, Merriam-Webster, →ISBN, page 6a:

They fetched a compass of seven days' journey.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Kings iii:9:

This day I breathed first; time is come round, / And where I did begin, there shall I end; / My life is run his compass.

1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

(obsolete) A passing round; circuit; circuitous course.


sieve

en-verb

sieve (third-person singular simple present sieves, present participle sieving, simple past and past participle sieved)

sieves (present singular third-person)
sieving (participle present)
sieved (participle past)
sieved (past)

From Middle English sive, syfe, from Old English sife, from Proto-West Germanic *sibi (“sieve”), from Proto-Indo-European *seyp-, *seyb- (“to pour, sieve, strain, run, drip”). Akin to German Sieb, Dutch zeef, Proto-Slavic *sito (Russian си́то (síto), сев (sev), се́ять (séjatʹ)).

This was their seventh defeat out of nine finals, including five in a row, and the second half was a chastening experience for the Serie A champions, culminating in them sieving more goals in one match than in the rest of the competition put together.

2017 June 3, Daniel Taylor, “Real Madrid win Champions League as Cristiano Ronaldo double defeats Juv”, in The Guardian (London):


hack

en-noun

hack (countable and uncountable, plural hacks)

From Middle English hacken, hakken, from Old English *haccian (“to hack”), from Proto-West Germanic *hakkōn, from Proto-Germanic *hakkōną (“to chop; hoe; hew”), from Proto-Indo-European *keg-, *keng- (“to be sharp; peg; hook; handle”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian häkje (“to hack”), West Frisian hakje (“to hack”), Dutch hakken (“to chop up; hack”), German hacken (“to chop; hack; hoe”), Danish hakke (“to chop”), Swedish hacka (“to hack; chop”), French hacher (“to chop”).
The computer senses date back to at least 1955 when it initially referred to creative problem solving. By 1963, the negative connotations of “black hat” or malicious hacking had become associated with telephone hacking (cf. phreaking).


hack

A rack used to dry something, such as bricks, fish, or cheese.


maul

From Middle English malle (“mace, maul”), from Anglo-Norman mail, from Old French mail, from Latin malleus (“hammer”). Doublet of malleus.

A heavy long-handled hammer, used for splitting logs by driving a wedge into them, or in combat.

(rugby) A situation where the player carrying the ball, who must be on his feet, is held by one or more opponents, and one or more of the ball carrier's team mates bind onto the ball carrier.


maul

en-verb

maul (third-person singular simple present mauls, present participle mauling, simple past and past participle mauled)

mauls (present singular third-person)
mauling (participle present)
mauled (participle past)
mauled (past)

To handle someone or something in a rough way.

The bear mauled him in a terrible way.

The embattled heavy cruiser is not in immediate danger of sinking, but is being badly mauled.

2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 26:02 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 2022-11-03:

To savage; to cause serious physical wounds (usually used of an animal).

The latest film by the Cohen brothers was mauled by the press, and was a box-office flop to boot.


calculator

[ˈkʰæɫ.kjəˌleɪ̯.ɾɚ]

In the sense of a person, from Middle English calkelatour (“mathematician, astrologer”), borrowed from Latin calculātor, equivalent to calculate + -or. The other meanings arose in Modern English.

inh

electronic calculator;   pocket calculator

The calculator on a bookkeeper's desk in the 1950s was an adding machine with mechanical guts.

I told him to hand me a calculator and he jokingly placed an adding machine at my side.

A mechanical or electronic device that performs mathematical calculations; sometimes, an electronic one specifically.

គណិតចរ

kĕəʼnetaʼ cɑɑ

ܚܲܫܘܼܒ݂ܘܿܢܵܐ

mechanical device that performs mathematical calculations

During the war, his grandmother had worked at the Bletchley Park decoding station as a calculator.

First, many real-world investors bear little resemblance to the cool calculators of efficient-market theory: they're all too subject to herd behavior, to bouts of irrational exuberance and unwarranted panic.

2020, Paul Krugman, Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future, page 145:

(dated) A person who performs mathematical calculation.

ܡܲܚܫܒ݂ܵܢܵܐ

dated: a person who performs mathematical calculations

Near-synonyms: schemer, plotter; manipulator

He revealed himself to be a cold-blooded calculator out to sabotage his colleagues.

Talk not thus, I implore you, Evelyn: do not imagine me the worldly calculator that my enemies deem me.

1838, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter X, in Alice or The Mysteries […], volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, book I, page 92:

You have in the merchant the shrewd calculator of probable contingencies; we shall see that we have in the prophet the absolute proclaimer of necessary and inevitable facts.

1858, John Cumming, Thy Word is Truth: an apology for Christianity, page 112:

A person who calculates (in the sense of scheming).

интригант

(obsolete) A set of mathematical tables.


priest

From Middle English prest, preest, from Old English prēost (“priest”), from Late Latin presbyter, from Ancient Greek πρεσβύτερος (presbúteros), from πρέσβυς (présbus, “elder, older”). Reinforced in Middle English by Old French prestre, also from Latin presbyter. Doublet of presbyter and prester.

They flop and struggle, but she unhooks them swiftly, stunning them with a small brass priest.

1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 212:

A blunt tool, used for quickly stunning and killing fish.


buff

en-noun

buff (countable and uncountable, plural buffs)

From buffe (“leather”), from Middle French buffle (“buffalo”).

A tool, often one covered with buff leather, used for polishing.

2014, “Aldergrove’s 856 gang busted, $400,000 in drugs seized,” CBC News, 30 July, 2014,
Police say this 20 ton hydraulic jack was used to press mixtures of cocaine and “buff” into brick.

Any substance used to dilute (street) drugs in order to increase profits.


millstone

millstones (plural)
mill-stone (alternative)

Dalgarven Mill – Museum of Ayrshire Country Life and Costume

From Middle English mylneston, milneston, from Old English mylenstān (“millstone”), from Proto-West Germanic *mulīnu + *stain; equivalent to mill + stone; cognate with Danish møllesten, Middle Dutch molensteen (modern Dutch molensteen), West Frisian molestien, Norwegian Bokmål møllestein, Old Saxon mulinstēn (Middle Low German mȫlenstēn), Old High German mulinstein, mülstein (Middle High German mülstein, modern German Mühlstein).

As it is the circular Motion of the Mill-ſtone which brings the Corn out of the Hopper by Jerks, and with a Velocity depending upon that of the Stone, other Grains are always ſucceeding, which raiſe it anew, and the Flower just made being no longer preſs'd is carry'd away into the Boulting Mill by the Circulation of Air that the Mill-ſtone puts into motion, which makes a whirling there.

1744, J[ohn] T[heophilus] Desaguliers, “Lecture XII. On Engines, especially Hydrostatical and Hydraulick Machines.”, in A Course of Experimental Philosophy, volume II, London: Printed for W. Innys, at the West End of St. Paul's; M. Senex, in Fleet-street; and T[homas] Longman, in Pater-noster-Row, →OCLC, page 429:

The reason why a mill-stone signifies confirmation from the Word in both senses, is, because wheat signifies good, and fine flour the truth thereof, hence by a mill-stone, by which wheat is ground into fine flour, or barley into meal, is signified the production of truth from good, or the production of what is false from evil, thus also the confirmation of truth or what is false from the Word; […]

1815, Emanuel Swedenborg, “[Book of Revelation,] Chapter XVIII”, in John Clowes, transl., The Apocalypse, or Book of Revelations, Explained According to the Spiritual Sense; in which are Revealed the Arcana which are there Predicted, and have been hitherto Deeply Concealed: Translated into English from a Latin Posthumous Work, of the Honourable Emanuel Swedenborg [by William Hill]; and Revised by the Translator of the Arcana Cœlestia [John Clowes], volume VI, London: Printed and sold for the Society for Printing and Publishing the Works of the Hon. Emanuel Swedenborg, instituted in London in the year 1810; by E. Hodson, 15, Cross Street, Hatton Garden; sold also by T. Goyder, 8, Charles Street, Westminster; and may be had of all booksellers in town and country, →OCLC, page 149, paragraph 1182:

We can tell what Australopithecines ate from the remains of their jaws and teeth. The earliest finds show teeth which are large and round like millstones – acting as grinding and pulverizing machines for fibrous vegetation.

1998, Colin Spencer, “Aquatic Ape Theory. How Early Did Fish Enter the Diet?”, in Harlan Walker, editor, Fish: Food from the Waters: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 1997, Totnes, Devon: Prospect Books, →ISBN, page 307:

A large round stone used for grinding grain.

رَحًى

In North America the millstone grit, and a grey sandy and slaty rock beneath it, occur three times; and it is exceedingly difficult to distinguish these rocks in hand specimens, without the aid of organized remains. And remains are almost exclusively confined to the grey rocks. Common quarrymen, farmers, and foreign geologists, apply the names, greywracke and millstone, to all these rocks promiscuously; neither having observed their different relative positions.

1832, Amos Eaton, Geological Text-book, for Aiding the Study of North American Geology: Being a Systematic Arrangement of Facts, Collected by the Author and His Pupils, under the Patronage of the Hon. Stephen Van Rensselaer, 2nd edition, Albany, N.Y.: Published by Websters and Skinners, New York, N.Y.: G. and C. and H. Carvill, Troy, N.Y.: William S. Parker, N. Tuttle, printer, →OCLC, pages 92–93:

From the above account it will be seen how closely the Millstone Grit and the Lower Coal Measures are like one another in their lithological character. Each is a group of thick sandstones parted by shales, and in each beds of coal are very generally found on the top of the sandstones. The differences are these. Among the Millstones the sandstones are thicker, fewer, further apart, more constant both in size and character, and as a rule coarse grits or conglomerates.

1869, A. H. Green, C[lement] le Neve Foster, J. R. Dakyns, “Lower Coal-measures or Ganister-beds”, in The Geology of the Carboniferous Limestone, Yoredale Rocks, and Millstone Grit of North Derbyshire and the Adjoining Parts of Yorkshire. (Sheets 81 N.E., 81 S.E., 72 N.E., and Adjoining Parts of 88 S.E., 82 N.W., 82 S.W., and 71 N.W. of the Map of the Geological Survey.) (Memoirs of the Geological Survey of England and Wales), London: Printed for Her Majesty's Stationery Office; published by Longmans, Green and Co., →OCLC, page 11:

(geology) A coarse-grained sandstone used for making such stones; millstone grit.

Paying the mortgage every month is a millstone round their necks.

[H]owever great and powerful England may be, the strain of such entanglements cannot but tell on her, and one day she may find herself in a predicament in which India may simply hang as a mill-stone round her neck.

1905, Pherozeshah M[erwanjee] Mehta, “Speech on the Ilbert Bill”, in C[hirravoori] Y[ajneswara] Chintamani, editor, Speeches and Writings of the Honourable Sir Pherozeshah M. Mehta, K.C.I.E., Allahabad: The Indian Press, →OCLC, page 164:

Furthermore, Colonel [Josiah Clement] Wedgwood was dead against special representation being given to landlords or even to universities. "Let India beware," he declared, "of the expansion of communal representation which she will find as a mill-stone hanging about her neck which will grow heavier as time goes on."

[1920], “Britain and India”, in Josiah C. Wedgwood: The Man and His Work, Madras: S. Ganesan & Co., →OCLC, page 118:

Another millstone around the NDP’s neck was the relative lack of seasoned parliamentarians in the government front bench who were skilled enough at repartee to take on the Tory veterans across the floor.

1982 December 11, Frances Russell, “Economic performance buoys Pawley’s position”, in The Vancouver Sun (The Weekend Sun), Vancouver, BC, page A6:

That stunning defeat effectively ushered in a three-year deep freeze on any discussion of climate in Congress, an era of paralysis so pervasive that in June 2013, in what many environmentalists hailed as a milestone for action on climate and critics decried as a millstone around the neck of a struggling economy.

2015, Seamus McGraw, “The Other White Meat”, in Betting the Farm on a Drought: Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change, Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 67:

AI may be a millstone to countries with a large population, they are a boon to a shrinking one.

2023 September 23, Leo Lewis, “It takes a village”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 2:

millstone round one's neck
millstone round one's neck#English

(figurative) Ellipsis of millstone round one's neck, a heavy responsibility that is difficult to bear (referring to Matthew 18:6 in the Bible).


beetle

From Middle English betel, from Old English bȳtel, bīetel (“hammer”), from Proto-West Germanic *bautil (“hammer, mallet”), equivalent to beat + -le. Cognate with Low German Bötel (“mallet”).

inh

A type of mallet with a large wooden head, used to drive wedges, beat pavements, etc.


beetle

en-verb

beetle (third-person singular simple present beetles, present participle beetling, simple past and past participle beetled)

beetles (present singular third-person)
beetling (participle present)
beetled (participle past)
beetled (past)


axe

From Middle English ax, axe, ex, from Old English æx, from Proto-West Germanic *akusi, from Proto-Germanic *akwisī, probably from a Proto-Indo-European *h₂egʷsih₂ (“axe”), from *h₂eḱ- (“sharp, pointed”). Compare German Axt, Dutch aks, Danish økse, Icelandic öxi, and also Latin ascia.

A tool for felling trees or chopping wood etc. consisting of a heavy head flattened to a blade on one side, and a handle attached to it.


drove

From Middle English drove, drof, draf, from Old English drāf (“action of driving; a driving out, expulsion; drove, herd, band; company, band; road along which cattle are driven”), from Proto-Germanic *draibō (“a drive, push, movement, drove”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreybʰ- (“to drive, push”). Cognate with Scots drave, dreef (“drove, crowd”), Dutch dreef (“a walkway, wide road with trees, drove”), Middle High German treip (“a drove”), Swedish drev (“a drive, drove”), Icelandic dreif (“a scattering, distribution”). More at drive.

cog

A broad chisel used to bring stone to a nearly smooth surface.


rake

From Middle English rake [and other forms], from Old English raca, racu, ræce (“tool with a row of pointed teeth, rake”), from Proto-Germanic *rakō, *rekô (“tool with a row of pointed teeth, rake”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to straighten, right oneself”).
Cognates
The English word is cognate with Danish rage (chiefly regional), Middle Dutch rāke, rēke (modern Dutch raak, reek (both regional), riek (“pitchfork, rake”)), Middle Low German rāke, racke (modern German Low German Raak (“rake; poker”)), Old High German rehho, rech (Middle High German reche, modern German Rechen (“rake”)), Old Norse reka (“shovel”) (modern Icelandic reka (“shovel”)), Old Saxon recho, Old Swedish raka (modern Swedish raka (“rake; (long) straight section of a road”)).

cog

Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. […] Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft.

1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], “The Old Punt: A Curious ‘Turnpike’”, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 19–20:

(agriculture, horticulture) A garden tool with a row of pointed teeth fixed to a long handle, used for collecting debris, grass, etc., for flattening the ground, or for loosening soil; also, a similar wheel-mounted tool drawn by a horse or a tractor.

бра́на

similar wheel-mounted tool drawn by horse or tractor

(by extension) A similarly shaped tool used for other purposes.

(gambling) A tool with a straight edge at the end used by a croupier to move chips or money across a gaming table.

A type of lockpick that has a ridged or notched blade that moves across the pins in a pin tumbler lock, causing them to settle into a shear line.


rake

The origin of the verb is uncertain. The noun is probably derived from the verb.
possibly related terms
* German ragen (“to rise up out of; to jut or stick out”), from Middle High German ragen (compare Middle Dutch rāgen, Middle Low German rāgen), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁erǵʰ- (“to go up, rise”); and
* Middle Dutch rāken (“to acquire; to hit (not miss); to reach; to touch”) (modern Dutch raken (“to hit (not miss); to touch; to become”)), Middle Low German rāken, rōken (“to hit (not miss); to reach; to touch”), from Proto-Germanic *rakōną (“to take a course or direction; to run”) (see further at etymology 4).

ref

From “Grinding and Setting Lathe and Planer Cutting Tools”, in Canadian Machinery and Manufacturing News, volume XVIII, number 1, Toronto, Ont.: MacLean Publishing Company, 1917 July 5, →OCLC, page 21.

der

(specifically) In full, angle of rake or rake angle: the angle between the edge or face of a tool (especially a cutting tool) and a plane (usually one perpendicular to the object that the tool is being applied to).


explorer

Any of various hand tools, with sharp points, used in dentistry.


scissors

en-noun

scissors pl (plural only, attributive scissor)

scissor (attributive)
cizars (alternative obsolete)
cizers (alternative obsolete)
scissars (alternative archaic)
sissors (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English sisours (attested since 1350–1400), from Old French cisoirs, from Late Latin cīsōria, plural of cīsōrium (“cutting tool”); from Latin word root -cīsus (compare excise) or caesus, past participle of caedō (“to cut”). Partially displaced native Old English sċēara (“scissors, shears”), whence shears. Doublet of chisel.
The current spelling, from the 16th century, is due to association with Medieval Latin scissor (“tailor”), from Latin carrying the meaning “carver, cutter”, from scindō (“to split”).

Near-synonym: shears

Those scissors are sharp.

less commonly to indicate singular scissors

That scissors is sharp.

Scissors are used to cut the flowers.

Use scissors to cut them if you don't have proper shears.

Roses will last longer if a knife rather than a scissors is used to cut the blooms.

1947 June 22, “Around the Garden”, in New York Times:

(countable, usually construed as plural) A tool used for cutting thin material, consisting of two crossing blades attached at a pivot point in such a way that the blades slide across each other when the handles are closed.

ཟུང་གྲི (zung gri, literally “pair-knife”)


brush

brush (countable and uncountable, plural brushes)

From Middle English brusshe, from Old French broisse (Modern French brosse), from Vulgar Latin *brustia, from Frankish *bursti, from Proto-Germanic *burstiz (“bristle”), or also Vulgar Latin *bruscia, from Proto-Germanic *bruskaz (“tuft, thicket, underbrush”), which could be from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrusgo-.

der

(music) An instrument, resembling a brush, used to produce a soft sound from drums or cymbals.

Your bitmap image appears along the painted stroke. If you'd like to permanently create a custom sprite brush, it's fairly easy to adapt an existing MEL file[…].

2007, Lee Lanier, Maya Professional Tips and Techniques, page 12:

(computer graphics) An on-screen tool for "painting" a particular colour or texture.


parasol

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

From French parasol, from Italian parasole, from para- (“to shield”) + sole (“sun”).

sunshade

umbrella used for protection against the sun

A sun umbrella for garden use etc., mounted on a stand; these can be foldable and demountable.


saw

Sranan Tongo: sa

The noun from Middle English sawe, sawgh, from Old English saga, sagu (“saw”), from Proto-West Germanic *sagu, from Proto-Germanic *sagô, *sagō (“saw”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”).
Cognate with West Frisian seage (“saw”), Dutch zaag (“saw”), German Säge (“saw”), Danish sav (“saw”), Swedish såg (“saw”), Icelandic sög (“saw”), and through Indo-European, with Latin secō (“cut”) and Italian sega (“saw”).
The verb from Middle English sawen, from the noun above.

rare, idiosyncratic, past tense of see (for example, as used by Dina Cappiello of the Associated Press)

A tool with a toothed blade used for cutting hard substances, in particular wood or metal.

Such a tool with an abrasive coating instead of teeth.


screwdriver

A hand tool or power tool which engages with the head of a screw and allows torque to be applied to turn the screw, thus driving it in or loosening it.


drill

From Middle Dutch drillen (“bore, move in a circle”).

Wear safety glasses when operating an electric drill.

A tool or machine used to remove material so as to create a hole, typically by plunging a rotating cutting bit into a stationary workpiece.


hammer

From Middle English hamer, from Old English hamor, from Proto-West Germanic *hamar, from Proto-Germanic *hamaraz (“tool with a stone head”) (compare West Frisian hammer, Low German Hamer, Dutch hamer, German Hammer, Danish hammer, Swedish hammare). This is traditionally ascribed to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱmoros, from *h₂éḱmō (“stone”), but see *hamaraz for further discussion.
(declare a defaulter on the stock exchange): Originally signalled by knocking with a wooden mallet.

sense

Nonstop hammer cock, violent mannered shots land a lot

2016, Doseone, “Enter the Gungeon”, in Enter the Gungeon OST:

In the course of a single month this year, the following news reports emanated from Florida: A gun enthusiast in Tampa built a 55-foot backyard pool shaped like a revolver, with a hot tub in the hammer.

2023 March 27, Helen Lewis, “How Did America’s Weirdest, Most Freedom-Obsessed State Fall for an Authoritarian Governor?”, in The Atlantic:

(firearms) A moving part of a firearm that strikes the firing pin to discharge a gun.


funnel

From Middle English funell, fonel, probably through Old French *founel (compare Middle French fonel, Old Occitan fonilh, enfounilh), from Latin fundibulum, infundibulum (“funnel”), from infundere (“to pour in”);
in (“in”) + fundere (“to pour”); compare Breton founilh (“funnel”), Welsh ffynel (“air hole, chimney”). See fuse.

A utensil in the shape of an inverted hollow cone terminating in a narrow pipe, for channeling liquids or granular material; typically used when transferring said substances from any container into ones with a significantly smaller opening.

漏斗

ろうと, rōto, じょうご, jōgo

top of (the) funnel marketing

Then there's the funnel. Marketing usually spends most of their time at the top of the funnel with a quantity strategy. On the other hand, Sales spends their time trying to convert, accelerate, or close accounts that are in the middle or bottom of the funnel.

2019, Chris Golec, Peter Isaacson, Jessica Fewless, Account-Based Marketing: How to Target and Engage the Companies That Will Grow Your Revenue, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 41:

(marketing, figurative) Ellipsis of purchase funnel (“the process of customer acquisition conceptualized as a series of stages, from initial awareness (top) to sale or conversion (bottom)”).


funnel

en-verb

funnel (third-person singular simple present funnels, present participle funnelling or funneling, simple past and past participle funnelled or funneled)

funnels (present singular third-person)
funnelling (participle present)
funneling (participle present)
funnelled (participle past)
funnelled (past)
funneled (participle past)
funneled (past)

Expect delays where the traffic funnels down to one lane.

2014, Paul Salopek, Blessed. Cursed. Claimed., National Geographic (December 2014)https://web.archive.org/web/20150212214621/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/pilgrim-roads/salopek-text
A line of clocks in our cheap hotel displays the time in Lagos, Bucharest, Kiev: the capitals of pilgrims who come to kneel at the birthplace of Christ. In reality the entire world funnels through the Church of the Nativity.

(intransitive) To proceed through a narrow gap or passageway akin to a funnel; to condense or narrow.

door een kleiner opening voeren

to proceed through a narrow gap or passageway akin to a funnel

Our taxes are being funnelled into pointless government initiatives.

Like so many others, I was awestruck by the first season, which captured a moment in time and successfully funnelled its rage outwards at a world in which women are indeed silenced, controlled and killed by men.

2018 June 16, Fiona Sturges, “Cattleprods! Severed tongues! Torture porn! Why I’ve stopped watching the Handmaid’s Tale”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-02-05:

The Soviet Union had a substantially larger land army, considerably larger than NATO and the U.S.,” Sharpless said. […]So, one strategy was to block various access routes and perhaps funnel them into an area where you could use larger weapons against them.

2019 January 7, Paul Srubas, “His job was to place atomic bombs. Place them, not drop them. Set the timer. Run like hell.”, in Green Bay Press-Gazette:

He was alive to every creak and dunt, the thinness of the walls, as if the tenement block was a kind of aural panopticon that funnelled every sound to the other residents, let everyone eavesdrop on their business.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 274:

(transitive) To channel, direct, or focus (emotions, money, resources, etc.).

faire circuler des ressources ou de l'argent


funnel

Alternative form of fummel (“hybrid animal”).


tangle

en-noun

tangle (countable and uncountable, plural tangles)

Of North Germanic origin, such as Danish tang or Swedish tång, from Old Norse þongull, þang. See also Norwegian tongul, Faroese tongul, Icelandic þöngull.

(in the plural) An instrument consisting essentially of an iron bar to which are attached swabs, or bundles of frayed rope, or other similar substances, used to capture starfishes, sea urchins, and other similar creatures living at the bottom of the sea.


mop

mop (countable and uncountable, plural mops)

→ Canadian French: moppe

→ German: Mopp

→ Irish: mapa

→ Spanish: mopa

From Middle English mappe (also as mappel), perhaps borrowed from Walloon mappe (“napkin”), from Latin mappa (“napkin, cloth”). Believed to be from a Semitic source, variously claimed as Phoenician or Punic (the latter by Quintilian). Compare Modern Hebrew מַפָּה (mapá, “a map; a cloth”) (shortened from מַנְפָּה (manpah, “fluttering banner, streaming cloth”)). Doublet of map, nape, and nappe.

An implement for washing floors or similar, made of a piece of cloth, or a collection of thrums, or coarse yarn, fastened to a handle.

He gave the floor a quick mop to soak up the spilt juice.


peen

Clipping of penis, with the spelling changed to maintain the original pronunciation.

With all due respect (and that may be very little), the real truth is that being a dad is sometimes an imposition of pain far worse than any up-the-peen catheter could ever deliver.

2009, Danny Evans, Rage Against the Meshugenah: Why it Takes Balls to Go Nuts, New American Library, published 2009, →ISBN:

Where to touch a man that will drive him wild every time (Hint: It's probably his peen.)

2010, Andrea Lavinthal, Jessica Rozler, Your So-Called Life: A Guide to Boys, Body Issues, and Other Big-Girl Drama You Thought You Would Have Figured Out By Now, Harper, published 2010, →ISBN, page 32:

It's so quiet you could hear a peen go soft.

2012, Fanny Merkin, Andrew Shaffer, Fifty Shames of Earl Grey: A Parody, Da Capo Press, published 2012, →ISBN, page 49:

“Guillermo, you will now take Colin Robinson's peen and scrotum and crush it in your hand.” “What?” “Good idea.” “No.” “Yeah.” “He's gonna do it.” “I'm afraid I can't, Master. As much as I would love to, something compels me not to.”

2021 September 2, Paul Simms, “The Prisoner” (2058: from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 3, episode 1, spoken by Nadja of Antipaxos (Natasia Demetriou):


churn

en-verb

churn (third-person singular simple present churns, present participle churning, simple past and past participle churned)

churns (present singular third-person)
churning (participle present)
churned (participle past)
churned (past)

Noun from Middle English chyrne, cherne, kyrne ( > Scots kirn), from Old English ċyrn, ċyrin, ċirin (“churn”), from Proto-Germanic *kirnijǭ (“churn”); verb from Middle English chyrnen from Old English ċernan, from Proto-Germanic *kirnijaną (“to churn, stir”), of unknown origin. Cognate with West Frisian tsjerne, Dutch karn, Walloon serene, German Karn, Kirne, Norwegian Bokmål kjerne, Danish kærne, Swedish kärna, Icelandic kirna.

der

(US, informal, finance, travel) To continually sign up for new credit cards in order to earn signup bonuses, airline miles, and other benefits.

(finance) To carry out wash sales in order to make the market appear more active than it really is.


churn

en-noun

churn (countable and uncountable, plural churns)

a butter churn

We notice by our exchanges that great efforts are being made throughout the western States especially, to palm off upon the farming public various kinds of patent churns, or to induce many mechanics to give large sums for the Right to manufacture the same—while in a majority of cases, we believe, the articles are absolutely worthless, or inferior to older kinds that might be procured for less money. We have repeatedly cautioned our readers against purchasing these new fangled churns until after they have been more fully tested; and we are happy to know that our remarks have saved not a few of our friends from imposition. To set this matter in a clearer light before our readers, we will glance at a few of the different churns, now most prominently before the public—some valuable, some useless.

1849 January 15, “A Glance at Patent Churns”, in Ohio Cultivator: Devoted to Agriculture, Horticulture and Domestic Economy, volume 5, number 2, page 17:

A vessel used for churning, especially for producing butter.

As the ends of the up and down platforms are not opposite each other, it is not possible to provide the ordinary type of barrow crossing, and the full churns were too heavy to be man-handled up and down the stairs of the footbridge.

1951 October, “The Why and the Wherefore: Milk Platform at Beccles”, in Railway Magazine, page 717:

In the old days, milk trains consisted entirely of vans loaded with ten-gallon churns. When filled, these churns weigh 130 lb. each and their manipulation is an art. [...] Like the tank wagons, the churns are dairy property, but farmers often have other ideas, and find their own uses for them—it has not been unknown for dairy inspectors to find missing churns tucked away in an unsuspected corner of a farmhouse, filled to the brim with banknotes!

1959 March, R. C. Riley, “Home with the milk”, in Trains Illustrated, page 155:

A milk churn (container for the transportation of milk).


file

From Middle English file, fyle, from Old English fēl, fēol (“file”), from earlier fīil, from Proto-Germanic *finhlō, *finhilō (“file, rasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *peyḱ- (“to adorn, form”). Cognate with West Frisian file (“file”), Dutch vijl (“file”), German Feile (“file”).

der

A tool consisting of a strip or rod of hardened and coarse metal, used for removing sharp edges, shaping, and cutting, especially through metal; usually a hand tool.


bolt

→ Irish: bolta

→ Japanese: ボルト (boruto)

→ Maltese: bolt

desctree

→ Russian: болт (bolt)
→ Azerbaijani: bolt
→ Ingrian: boltta

→ Scottish Gaelic: bolta

From Middle English bolt, from Old English bolt, from Proto-West Germanic *bolt, from Proto-Germanic *bultaz, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeld- (“to knock, strike”). Compare Lithuanian beldu (“I knock”), baldas (“pole for striking”). Akin to Dutch and West Frisian bout, German Bolz or Bolzen, Danish bolt, Swedish bult, Icelandic bolti.

der

mechanical engineering
mechanical engineering

(military, mechanical engineering) A sliding mechanism to chamber and unchamber a cartridge in a firearm.


bolt

en-verb

bolt (third-person singular simple present bolts, present participle bolting, simple past and past participle bolted)

bolts (present singular third-person)
bolting (participle present)
bolted (participle past)
bolted (past)

I hate when vice can bolt her arguments.

1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC, page 26, line 760:

To utter precipitately; to blurt or throw out.


bolt

From Middle English bulten, from Anglo-Norman buleter, Old French bulter (modern French bluter), from a Germanic source originally meaning "bag, pouch" cognate with Middle High German biuteln (“to sift”), from Proto-Germanic *buzdô (“beetle, grub, swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰūs- (“to move quickly”). Cognate with Dutch buidel.

der

The combination, in a flour bolt, of a reel head having a throat near its outer edge for the passage of the tailings and a series of revolving adjustable beaters, substantially as set forth.

1885, Canada. Patent Office, The Canadian Patent Office Record and Register of Copyrights and Trade Marks, page 279:

We have a number of these reels in different mills that are bolting the break flour direct from the scalping reels and scalped through No. 8 cloth. […] Now, gentlemen, they require a much less number to do a given amount of work than any other known machine or bolt, and require less space and power.

As the material is agitated by the motion of the bolt, the flour falls through, while the smaller particles of bran are taken up by the current of air and carried off.

1896, United States. Patent Office, Decisions of the Commissioner of Patents and of the United States Courts in Patent and Trade-mark and Copyright Cases., page 493:

A sieve, especially a long fine sieve used in milling for bolting flour and meal; a bolter.


spade

→ Scottish Gaelic: spaid

→ Fiji Hindi: sipi

From Middle English spade, from Old English spada, spade, spadu (“spade”), from Proto-Germanic *spadô. Doublet of spatha, spathe, and épée.

call a spade a spade and a shovel a shovel

'Make your mind easy,' Ratsey said; 'I have dug too often in this graveyard for any to wonder if they see me with a spade.'

[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:

"[...] And not a single spade has gone in the ground - not a single mile of track built."

2021 October 6, Paul Stephen, “Network News: Labour: build HS2 and NPR and end "paper promises"”, in RAIL, number 941, page 25:

A garden tool with a handle and a flat blade for digging. Not to be confused with a shovel which is used for moving earth or other materials.


razor blade

razor blades (plural)
razorblade (alternative)
razor-blade (alternative)

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

A thin piece of steel with a sharp edge that can be fitted into a razor.

en:cartridge comprising blades for shaving razor

A replaceable cartridge in which razor blades are set, fitted into a razor.

en:blade for utility knife, loosely equated

(loosely) A thin interchangeable blade for a utility knife (especially, that of a Stanley knife) that is similar to a razor blade stricto sensu (in size, thinness, and sharpness).


razor blade

en-verb

razor blade (third-person singular simple present razor blades, present participle razor blading, simple past and past participle razor bladed)

razor blades (present singular third-person)
razor blading (participle present)
razor bladed (participle past)
razor bladed (past)

In the razor blade tests DeVries conducted the person who was razor blading it before cure was exactly the same person that was doing it after cure.

1988, Certain High Intensity Retroreflective Sheeting, Inv. 337-TA-268, page 374:

It's unlikely that anyone will razor blade your pack open inside a hotel, but light fingers may, occasionally, dip into unlocked luggage.

1991, Rob Rachowiecki, Peru: A Travel Survival Kit, page 185:

I was the last man aboard. The last to feel her as a living vessel before she became a steel hulk and was razor bladed.

2019, Simon Quail, Gangway: A Life at Sea, page ii:

To those of us living in democracies today, the image of my father sitting at home and razor blading out a page to glue in the newly updated replacement might seem ridiculous.

2020, Natan Sharansky, Gil Troy, Never Alone: Prison, Politics, and My People:


fork

Sranan Tongo: forku

→ Dutch: fork

→ Japanese: フォーク (fōku)

→ Kannada: ಫೋರ್ಕ್ (phōrk)

→ Korean: 포크 (pokeu)

→ Maori: paoka

→ Tamil: போர்க் (pōrk)

→ Telugu: ఫోర్క్ (phōrk)

From Middle English forke (“digging fork”), from Old English force, forca (“forked instrument used to torture”), from Proto-West Germanic *furkō (“fork”), from Latin furca (“pitchfork, forked stake; gallows, beam, stake, support post, yoke”), of uncertain origin. The Middle English word was later reinforced by Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French forque (= Old French forche whence French fourche), also from the Latin. Doublet of fourche and furcate. Cognate also with North Frisian forck (“fork”), Dutch vork (“fork”), Danish fork (“fork”), German Forke (“pitchfork”). Displaced native gafol, ġeafel, ġeafle (“fork”), from Old English.
In its primary sense of “fork”, Latin furca appears to be derived from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰerk(ʷ)-, *ǵʰerg(ʷ)- (“fork”), although the development of the -c- is difficult to explain. In other senses this derivation is unlikely. For these, perhaps it is connected to Proto-Germanic *furkaz, *firkalaz (“stake, stick, pole, post”), from Proto-Indo-European *perg- (“pole, post”). If so, this would relate the word to Old English forclas pl (“bolt”), Old Saxon ferkal (“lock, bolt, bar”), Old Norse forkr (“pole, staff, stick”), Norwegian fork (“stick, bat”), Swedish fork (“pole”).

tienhaara

figurative: point in time of making a decision

afsplitsing

computer science: splitting of a process

odnož

computer science: copying and separately developing a project

bifurcació

computer science: a separately developed project based upon a copy of an existing project

a three-prong spear somewhat resembling a pitchfork

Any of several types of pronged (tined) tools (physical tools), as follows:

A utensil with spikes used to put solid food into the mouth, or to hold food down while cutting.

Any of several types of pronged tools for use on farms, in fields, or in the garden or lawn, such as a smaller hand fork for weeding or a larger one for turning over the soil.

Such a pronged tool having a long straight handle, generally for two-handed use, as used for digging, lifting, mucking, pitching, etc.


plane

→ Irish: plána

From Latin plānum (“flat surface”), a noun use of the neuter of plānus (“plain”). The word was introduced in the 17th century to distinguish the geometrical senses from the other senses of plain. Doublet of llano, piano, and plain.

հարթություն

geometry: flat surface extending infinitely in all directions

A roughly flat, thin, often moveable structure used to create lateral force by the flow of air or water over its surface, found on aircraft, submarines, etc.


plane

From Middle English plane, plaine, from Anglo-Norman plaine, from Late Latin plāna (“planing tool”).

(countable, carpentry) A tool for smoothing wood by removing thin layers from the surface.


nail

en-verb

nail (third-person singular simple present nails, present participle nailing, simple past and past participle nailed)

nails (present singular third-person)
nailing (participle present)
nailed (participle past)
nailed (past)

From Middle English naylen, from Old English næġlan.

Wikipedia disambiguation page on both meanings of nail

Nail in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

I pray you now send me some dub, / A bottle or two to the needy. / I beg you won't bring it yourself, / The harman is at the Old-Bailey; / I'd rather you'd send it behalf, / For, if they twig you they'll nail you.

1765, “A Song in High Life”, in The Merry Medley, volume 1, London: W. Hoggard, page 35:

Military Intelligence seems to be on the spot in a quiet sort of way. I just met a G-2 slue-foot and he was a most efficient guy! They're keeping low, I think, until they nail their man.

1943 October 9, The Australian Women's Weekly, page 3, column 4:

Dammit, John, I'm tired of this 'Demolition Man' stuff! […] Now, I know you've been trying to nail this psycho for two years, but try remembering a little thing called official police procedure.

1993, Peter M. Lenkov, Robert Reneau, Daniel Waters, Demolition Man, spoken by Captain Healy (Steve Kahan):

we'll nail the sophist to it, if we can get him on that charge;

2005, Lesley, transl. Brown, Sophist, 261a, translation of original by Plato:


tap

The noun is derived from Middle English tappe (“hollow device for controlling the flow of liquid from a hole, cock, faucet, spigot; hole through which the liquid flows; the liquid which thus flows”), from Old English tæppa, from Proto-West Germanic *tappō, from Proto-Germanic *tappô (“a plug, tap; peg; tapering stick”), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂p- (“to lose; to sacrifice”). Doublet of tapa.
The verb is derived from Middle English tappen (“to obtain (liquid, chiefly liquor) from a tap; to obtain and sell (liquor)”), from Old English tæppian (“to provide (a container) with a stopper; to obtain (liquid) from a tap”), and then either:
* from Old English tæppa (see above) + -ian (suffix forming verbs); or
* from Proto-Germanic *tappōną, from *tappô (noun) (see above).
Verb sense 1.3.5 (“to turn over (a playing card or playing piece) to remind players that it has already been used in that round”) alludes to the abilities or resources of the card or piece having been drawn on to the point of temporary exhaustion: see verb sense 1.3.2.

inh

We drilled a hole and then cut the threads with the proper tap to match the valve’s thread.

To fit the Pin therefore to a true ſize, I in my Practiſe uſe to try into vvhat Hole of the Screvv Plate, the Tap or place of the Tap, (if it be a tapering Tap,) I make the Nut vvith vvill juſt ſlide through; […] But if the Screvv-Tap have no Handle, then it hath its upper end Filed to a long ſquare, to fit into an hollovv ſquare, made near the Handle of the Screvv-Plate: Put that long ſquare hole over the long ſquare on the top of the Tap, and then by turning about the Screvv-Plate, you vvill alſo turn about the Tap in the Hole, and make Grooves and Threds in the Nut.

1678 January 11 – February 11 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Moxon, “Numb[er] II. Applied to the Making of Hinges, Locks, Keys, Screws and Nuts Small and Great.”, in Mechanick Exercises, or The Doctrine of Handy-Works, […], volume I, London: […] Joseph Moxon, published 1683, →OCLC, page 31:

(mechanics) A cylindrical tool used to cut an internal screw thread in a hole, with cutting edges around the lower end and an upper end to which a handle is fitted to turn the tool.


tap

en-noun

tap (countable and uncountable, plural taps)

The verb is derived from Middle English tappen, teppen (“to give (something) a knock or tap; to hit (something) lightly, pat, tap”), either:
* imitative of the making of a tapping sound; or
* from Old French tapper, taper (“to tap”) (modern French taper), from Frankish *tappōn, *dabbōn (“to strike”), or from Middle Low German tappen, tapen (“to rap, strike, tap”), both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *dab- (“to strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰebʰ- (“to beat, strike; to stun; to be speechless”). Doublet of dab.
Verb sense 1.1.1 (“to arrest (someone)”) and sense 1.6 (“to choose or designate (someone) for a duty, etc.”) allude to a police officer or other person tapping someone on their shoulder to catch their attention or to select them.
The noun is derived from Middle English tap, tappe (“light blow or hit”), and then either:
* from Middle English tappen (verb) (see above); or
* from Old French tape (“light slap or touch, pat”) (modern French tape), from tapper, taper (verb) (see above).
Cognates
* German tappen (“to fumble; to grope”)
* Icelandic tappa, tapsa, tæpta (“to tap”)

der

(firearms, slang) A shot fired from a firearm.


screed

From Middle English screde [and other forms], a variant of shrede (“fragment, scrap; strip of cloth; strip cut off from a larger piece; band or thread woven into fabric; element, streak”) (whence shred (noun)), from Old English sċrēad, sċrēade (“a piece cut off; paring, shred”), from Proto-Germanic *skraudō (“a piece, shred; a cut, crack”), from *skraudaną (“to cut up, shred”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”). The English word is cognate with Old Frisian skrēd. Doublet of escrow, scroll, and shred.

der

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-screed.wav

ферман

piece of writing or speech, especially if long

When applied to large surfaces, strips or screeds of wood should be fixed to float from; and when the plain surface is formed, it is finished with the handfloat.

1833, James Gallier, “Of Oil Mastic”, in The American Builder’s General Price Book and Estimator, […], New York, N.Y.: […] [Minard] Lafever and [James] Gallier, […] Stanley & Co., […], →OCLC, page 42:

The term Screed, in plastering, is a stile formed of lime and hair, about seven or eight inches wide, gauged exactly true. In floated-work these screed are made at every three or four feet distance, vertically round a room, and are prepared perfectly straight by applying the straight-edge to them to make them so; and when all the screeds are formed, the parts between them are filled up flush with lime and hair, or stuff, and made even with the face of the screeds. The straight-edge is then worked horizontally upon the screeds, to take off all superfluous stuff.

1841, Minard Lafever, “Plastering”, in The Modern Builders’ Guide, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: William D. Smith, →OCLC, page 104:

The use of timber battens as screeds makes it easy to get the floating coat flat. Getting a blemish-free skim coat is more difficult.

1991, Robert Matthews, “Plastering”, in Practical House Building: A Manual for the Selfbuilder, Leicester, Leicestershire: Blackberry Books, published 1998, →ISBN, page 77, column 1:

(construction, masonry) Senses relating to building construction and masonry.

A tool, usually a long strip of wood or other material, placed on a floor to be covered with concrete, a wall to be plastered, etc., as a guide for producing a smooth, flat surface.

майка

tool used as a guide for producing a smooth, flat surface

The screeds and vibrator on the machine finisher are set to give the proper surface elevation and produce a dense concrete. In most cases, there should be a sufficiently thick layer of mortar ahead of the screed to insure that all low spots will be filled. The vibrator follows the front screed and the rear screed is last. The rear screed should be adjusted to carry enough grout ahead of it to insure continuous contact between screed and pavement.

1973, T. W. Love, “Finishing Concrete”, in Construction Manual: Concrete & Formwork, Carlsbag, Calif.: Craftsman Book Company, published 2001, →ISBN, page 129:

A tool such as a long strip of wood or other material which is drawn over a wet layer of concrete, plaster, etc., to make it smooth and flat; also, a machine that achieves this effect; a screeder.

kalis

tool drawn over a wet layer to make it smooth and flat; machine that achieves this effect


pliers

→ Cebuano: playis

→ Tagalog: plais

→ Tok Pisin: plais

→ Yakan: palayes

I need a pair of pliers to get a good grip on that broken screw.

A pincer-like gripping tool that multiplies the strength of the user's hand, often used for bending things.

pincë

gripping tool which multiplies the strength of the user's hand


pair of compasses

en-noun

pair of compasses (plural pairs of compasses)

A tool for drawing accurate circles or circular arcs, or for measuring or transferring lengths, usually consisting of two arms joined with an adjustable hinge at one end; until the middle ages both arms always had metal points at their free ends (this version is now called a divider or pair of dividers), but in recent centuries for a device called a compass or pair of compasses, one arm typically holds a ruling pen, pencil, or some other implement for making marks.


spanner

Japanese: スパナ (supana)

Korean: 스패너 (seupaeneo)

Malay: sepana

مِفْتَاح إِنْجْلِيزِيّ m (miftāḥ ʔinglīziyy, literally “English key”)

га́ечны ключ m (háječny ključ, literally “nut key”)

га́ечен ключ m (gáečen ključ, literally “nut key”)

γερμανικό κλειδί n (germanikó kleidí, literally “German key”)

га́ечный ключ m (gáječnyj ključ, literally “nut key”)

гайкови́й ключ m (hajkovýj ključ, literally “nut key”)

The spanner for spanning or winding up the spring of the wheel lock.

1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, Fig. 10., page xvi:

(weaponry) A hand tool shaped like a small crank handle, for winding the spring of a wheel lock on a musket.


wrench

wrenches (plural)
wrenche (alternative obsolete)
wrinche (alternative obsolete)
wringe (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English wrench, from Old English wrenċ. Compare German Rank (“plot, intrigue”).

(US, Canada, Philippines) A hand tool for making rotational adjustments, such as fitting nuts and bolts, or fitting pipes.

(UK) An adjustable spanner used by plumbers.


crimp

→ Welsh: crimp

From Middle English crimpen (“to be contracted, be drawn together”), from Middle Dutch crimpen, crempen (“to crimp”), from Proto-Germanic *krimpaną (“to shrink, draw back”) (compare related Old English ġecrympan (“to curl”)). Cognate with Dutch krimpen, German Low German krimpen, Faroese kreppa (“crisis”), and Icelandic kreppa (“to bend tightly, clench”). Compare also derivative Middle English crymplen (“to wrinkle”) and causative crempen (“to turn something back, restrain”, literally “to cause to shrink or draw back”), both ultimately derived from the same root. See also cramp.

cog

The strap was held together by a simple metal crimp.

A fastener or a fastening method that secures parts by bending metal around a joint and squeezing it together, often with a tool that adds indentations to capture the parts.

(climbing) A small hold with little surface area.


telescope

en-verb

telescope (third-person singular simple present telescopes, present participle telescoping, simple past and past participle telescoped)

telescopes (present singular third-person)
telescoping (participle present)
telescoped (participle past)
telescoped (past)

From tele- + -scope.
From Latin tēlescopium, from Ancient Greek τηλεσκόπος (tēleskópos, “far-seeing”), from τῆλε (têle, “afar”) + σκοπέω (skopéō, “I look at”).
Coined in 1611 by the Greek mathematician Giovanni Demisiani for one of Galileo Galilei's instruments presented at a banquet at the Accademia dei Lincei. Doublet of Telescopium.

der

(intransitive) To come into collision, as railway cars, in such a manner that one runs into another.


squeegee

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

Probably from squeege, an intensified form of squeeze. Compare earlier squill-gee, squillgee.

скребо́к

с рези́новой наса́дкой

A tool consisting of a rubber or similar blade attached at a right angle to a handle, particularly

Similar long-handled tools used for drying or leveling surfaces such as paths and roadways.


spear

From Middle English spere, sperre, spear, from Old English spere, from Proto-West Germanic *speru, from Proto-Germanic *speru, from Proto-Indo-European *sperH-.
Cognates
See also West Frisian spear, Dutch speer, German Speer, Old Norse spjǫr, *sparrô, Middle Dutch sparre (“rafter”), Old Norse sparri (“spar, rafter”), sperra (“rafter, beam”); also Latin sparus (“short spear”), Albanian ferrë (“thorn, thornbush”).

It's not like you killed someone
It's not like you drove a spiteful spear into his side
Talk to Jesus Christ as if he knows the reasons why
He did it all for you

2000, “Judith”, performed by A Perfect Circle:

A long stick with a sharp tip used as a weapon for throwing or thrusting, or anything used to make a thrusting motion.

The rod to which the bucket, or plunger, of a pump is attached; a pump rod.


hardy

From Middle English hardy, hardi, from Old French hardi (“hardy, daring, stout, bold”).
Old French hardi is usually regarded as the past participle of hardir ("to harden, be bold, make bold"; compare Occitan ardir, Italian ardire), from Frankish *hardijan; but it may also have come directly from Frankish *hardi, a secondary form of Frankish *hard (compare Old High German harti, herti, secondary forms of Old High German hart (“hard”)); or even yet from Frankish *hardig (compare Middle Low German herdich (“persevering”), Old Danish hærdig, Norwegian herdig, Swedish härdig (“vigorous, courageous”)).
Cognate with hard. May have at some point also been surface analysed as hard + -y.

cog

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909

A blacksmith's fuller or chisel, having a square shank for insertion into a square hole in an anvil.


hoe

From Middle English howe, from Anglo-Norman houe, from Frankish *hauwā, derivative of Frankish *hauwan (“to hew”), from Proto-Germanic *hawwaną. More at hew.

For their organic row crops, they do the weeding with hoes. They get in there often, but it goes fast, and the weeds never get ahead.

It was obvious that it consisted of several blows to the head from the hoe.

en:any of various tools or machines, broad sense

Any of various tools for scraping, scratching, digging, or stirring soil or other materials.

(when not otherwise specified) An agricultural and horticultural hand tool consisting of a long handle with a flat blade fixed perpendicular to it at the end, used for digging rows or removing weeds by hand.

The grading is on hold. In the meantime, get that hoe over here and work on this utility trench. [Instructions issued to a worker who will operate a backhoe]

en:any of several non-hand-tool types of hoe

Any of several implements or machines usually called by their more specific names, for example, backhoe.


hoe

en-verb

hoe (third-person singular simple present hoes, present participle hoeing, simple past and past participle hoed)

hoes (present singular third-person)
hoeing (participle present)
hoed (participle past)
hoed (past)

to hoe the earth in a garden

Every year, I hoe my garden for aeration.

I always take a shower after I hoe in my garden.

(ambitransitive) To cut, dig, scrape, turn, arrange, or clean, with this tool.


hoe

Then we split to the Cafe Black Rose / To party with some hoes

1973, “Spoon”, in Hustler's Convention, performed by Lightnin' Rod:

Fuck all you hoes.
Get a grip, motherfucker.

1994, 0:00 from the start, in Juicy (Hip Hop), spoken by The Notorious B.I.G.:

[…] this chapter […] will […] explore why pimp (and hoe) characters, with their dramatic staging of gendered and occupational relations […] have taken such hold of the black youth imagination

2002, Eithne Quinn, Nuthin’ But a “G” Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap:

At school they had been among the only couples that had not done “it” at the Pimp & Hoe parties that popped up occasionally at the dorm

On the podcast, Gaines and his co-host Walter Weekes (Fresh), regularly refer to women as “hoes” or 304s (304 on an upside-down calculator looks like the word “hoe”).

2023 June 9, John Mac Ghlionn, “The new Andrew Tate: Toxic ‘manosphere’ podcaster claims ‘all women are whores’”, in New York Post:

(slang, derogatory) Alternative spelling of ho (“whore, prostitute”).


shovel

→ Fiji Hindi: sabbal

→ Marshallese: jabōļ

From Middle English shovele, schovel, showell, shoule, shole (> English dialectal shoul, shool), from Old English scofl (“shovel”), from Proto-Germanic *skuflō, *skūflō (“shovel”), equivalent to shove + -el (instrumental/agent suffix).
Cognate with Scots shuffle, shule, shuil (“shovel”), Saterland Frisian Sköifel (“shovel”), West Frisian skoffel, schoffel (“hoe, spade, shovel”), Dutch schoffel (“spade, hoe”), Low German Schüfel, Schuffel (“shovel”), German Schaufel (“shovel”), Danish skovl (“shovel”), Swedish skyffel, skovel (“shovel”), Icelandic skófla (“shovel”).

It was said that such train crews kept a spare shovel on board because, on numerous occasions, the beginner had not only zealously thrown coal into the firebox but had let the shovel go as well.

1943 July and August, T. Lovatt Williams, “Some Reminiscences of the Footplate—1”, in Railway Magazine, pages 233–234:

A hand tool with a handle, used for moving portions of material such as earth, snow, and grain from one place to another, with some forms also used for digging. In strict usage differentiated from a spade, which is designed solely for small-scale digging and incidental tasks such as chopping of small roots.

(especially US, loosely) Any shovel in the above senses, or any spade.


shovel

shovel (third-person singular simple present shovels, present participle shoveling or shovelling, simple past and past participle shoveled or shovelled)

shovels (present singular third-person)
shoveling (participle present)
shovelling (participle present)
shoveled (participle past)
shoveled (past)
shovelled (participle past)
shovelled (past)

The workers were shovelling gravel and tarmac into the pothole in the road.

After the blizzard, we shoveled the driveway for the next two days.

I don't mind shoveling, but using a pickaxe hurts my back terribly.

Off again, a fierce light now trailing out behind us from the open furnace door, lighting up the fireman as he shovelled more coal on to the furnace, [...].

1944 May and June, “When the Circle was Steam Operated”, in Railway Magazine, page 134:

The coal is then transferred to broad-gauge wagons for transport to Dublin. The transhipment is a rather laborious business, the coal being shovelled by hand from one wagon to another.

1951 May, R. K. Kirkland, “The Cavan & Leitrim Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 343:

Already late for work, I shovelled breakfast into my mouth as fast as possible.

The keeper then seemed to claw it out with fabulous reflexes only for TV replays to show the ball had most probably crossed the line before Forster had shovelled it away.

2011 December 29, Keith Jackson, “SPL: Celtic 1 Rangers 0”, in Daily Record:

(transitive, figuratively) To move with a shoveling motion.


adze

From Middle English adse, adese, from Old English adesa, eadesa (compare the oldest forms: adosa, adosan), assumed from Proto-Germanic *adisô, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃edʰḗs (compare Hittite [script needed] (atešša, “axe, hatchet”)).

cog

...if I wanted a board, I had no other way but to cut down a tree, set it on an edge before me, and hew it flat on either side with my axe, till I brought it to be thin as a plank, and then dub it smooth with my adze.

A cutting tool that has a curved blade set at a right angle to the handle and is used in shaping wood.


mattock

→ Irish: matóg

→ Welsh: batog

From Middle English mattok (“mattock, pickaxe”), from Old English mattuc, meottoc, mettoc (“mattock, fork, trident”), from Proto-West Germanic *mattjuk (“mattock, ploughshare”), from Proto-Indo-European *met- (“to cut, reap”). Related to Old High German medela (“plough”), Middle High German metze, metz (“knife”), Latin mateola (“implement for digging in the soil”), Polish motyka (“hoe, mattock”), Russian моты́га (motýga, “hoe, mattock”), Lithuanian matikkas (“mattock”), Sanskrit मत्य (matyà, “harrow, roller, club”). More at mason.

cog

Workmen, breaking up an old floor, have come to him, mattocks in their hands, dismayed: ‘Mr Richard, see what we have turned up ...’

2020, Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light, Fourth Estate, page 695:

An agricultural tool whose blades are at right angles to the body, similar to a pickaxe.


crowbar

From crow (“crow (bird)" also "metal lever, crowbar”) + bar, probably because the forked end looks like a crow's foot.

af

An iron or steel bar, often with a flattened end which may also be hook-shaped, to be used as a lever to manually force things apart.

koevoet

iron or steel bar used as a lever to manually force things apart


binoculars

en-noun

binoculars pl (normally plural, singular binocular)

He gazed around until on the lid of a spinet he spotted a promising collection of bottles, gin, whiskey, vermouth and sherry, mixed with violin bows, a flute, a toppling pile of books, six volumes of Grove's Dictionary mingled with paperback thrillers, a guitar without any strings, a pair of binoculars, a meerschaum pipe and a jar half-full of wasps and apricot jam.

1956, Delano Ames, chapter 14, in Crime out of Mind:

A hand-held device consisting of a series of lenses and prisms, used to magnify objects so that they can be better seen from a distance, and looked at through both eyes.

verkyker

hand-held device for looking at a distance


tongs

tong ("tool for manipulating things in a fire") + -s

There was also hairdressing: hairdressing, too, really was hairdressing in those times — no running a comb through it and that was that. It was curled, frizzed, waved, put in curlers overnight, waved with hot tongs;[…].

1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:

An instrument or tool used for picking things up without touching them with the hands or fingers, consisting of two slats or grips hinged at the end or in the middle, and sometimes including a spring to open the grips.


vice

(UK) Alternative spelling of vise (“mechanical screw apparatus used for clamping”).


shoehorn

shoehorns (plural)
shoe horn (alternative)
shoe-horn (alternative)

A smooth tool that assists in putting the foot into a shoe, by sliding the heel in after the toe is in place.


broomstick

broomsticks (plural)
broom-stick (alternative)

The handle of a broom (sweeping tool); (sometimes) the entire broom.


beater

From Middle English beter, betere, bettere, from Old English bēatere (“a beater; boxer, fighter; champion”), equivalent to beat + -er. Related to beetle (“a type of mallet”).

inh

percussion instrument
percussion instrument

(music) A stick used to play a percussion instrument.


pick

From Middle English piken, picken, pikken, from Old English *piccian, *pīcian (attested in pīcung (“a pricking”)), and pīcan, pȳcan (“to pick, prick, pluck”), both from Proto-West Germanic *pikkōn, from Proto-Germanic *pikkōną (“to pick, peck, prick, knock”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew-, *bu- (“to make a dull, hollow sound”). Doublet of pitch and peck.
Cognate with Dutch pikken (“to pick”), German picken (“to pick, peck”), Old Norse pikka, pjakka (whence Icelandic pikka (“to pick, prick”), Swedish picka (“to pick, peck”)).

A tool for unlocking a lock without the original key; a lock pick, picklock.

(music) A tool used for strumming the strings of a guitar; a plectrum.


gaff

From Middle English gaffe, from Old French gaffe, from Old Occitan gaf (“hook”), derivative of gafar (“to seize”), from 𐌲𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌽 (giban, “to give”). Doublet of gaffe.
Sense 5 apparently derives from the idea that the garment tricks or deceives others about the wearer's genitalia.

When Leonard finally hauls up a cod of seventy-five centimeters, probably seven years old, a typical catch ten years ago, they all joke, "Oh my God, get the gaff!"

1997, Mark Kurlansky, Cod: a Biography of the Fish That Changed the World:

A tool consisting of a large metal hook with a handle or pole, especially the one used to pull large fish aboard a boat.


awl

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

From Middle English aul, alle, al, from Old English æl, from Proto-West Germanic *al, from Proto-Germanic *alaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ólos. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Äil (“awl”), Dutch aal (“awl”), German Low German Ahl (“awl”), German Ahle (“awl”), Icelandic alur (“awl”). Spelling was influenced by the Old English synonym awel, awul (“awl”), from Proto-West Germanic *ahwal, from Proto-Germanic *ahwalaz (“fork, hook”), of unknown origin. Doublet of elsen.

He dressed himself in some old ragged clothes, and took a tame white bear, which he had, with him, as well as an awl, some pitch, and twine.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 149:

A pointed instrument for piercing small holes, as in leather or wood; used by shoemakers, saddlers, cabinetmakers, etc. The blade is differently shaped and pointed for different uses, as in the brad awl, saddler's awl, shoemaker's awl, etc.

(entomology) Any of various hesperiid butterflies.


nutcracker

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

(ornithology) Any bird of the genus Nucifraga in the crow family.

The colorful bottles have popped up every summer in black and Hispanic communities — from the bodegas of Washington Heights to the stoops of Fort Greene — since the early 1990s. On beach boardwalks, at neighborhood basketball courts and block parties, New Yorkers are drinking nutcrackers, boozy homespun cocktails made from a blend of alcohol and fruit juices.

2019 August 17, Aaron Randle, “Banned on the Beach? It’s Still Nutcracker Summer”, in New York Times:

(US, New York City) A bootleg mixed drink made from a blend of alcohols and fruit juices.

I hadn't been to school for a while so the math was a real nutcracker

1978, The Laboregister, volume 2, Michigan Department of Labor, page 177:

(informal) Something that is difficult to figure out; a puzzle.


elevator

→ Hawaiian: ʻeleweka

→ Japanese: エレベーター

→ Korean: 엘리베이터 (ellibeiteo)

/ˈɛləˌveɪtə/

/ˈɛləˌveɪtəɹ/

one's elevator doesn't go all the way to the top

A dental instrument used to pry up ("elevate") teeth in difficult extractions, or depressed portions of bone.


fine-tooth comb

en-verb

fine-tooth comb (third-person singular simple present fine-tooth combs, present participle fine-tooth combing, simple past and past participle fine-tooth combed)

fine-tooth combs (present singular third-person)
fine-tooth combing (participle present)
fine-tooth combed (participle past)
fine-tooth combed (past)

The noun is derived from fine (“particularly slender”) + tooth (“sharp projection”) + comb. The verb is derived from the noun.

compound

(dated) To comb or go through (hair, an animal's fur, etc.) with a comb having fine, closely spaced teeth.

kammata tiheällä kammalla

to comb or go through (hair, an animal’s fur, etc.) with a comb having fine, closely spaced teeth


nipper

(usually in the plural) Any of various devices (as pincers) for nipping.

(Canada, slang, Newfoundland) A mosquito.


nipper

en-verb

nipper (third-person singular simple present nippers, present participle nippering, simple past and past participle nippered)

nippers (present singular third-person)
nippering (participle present)
nippered (participle past)
nippered (past)

(nautical, transitive) To seize (two ropes) together.


plough

→ Fiji Hindi: falaawaa

From Middle English plouh, plow, plugh(e), plough(e), plouw, from Old English plōh (“hide of land, ploughland”) and Old Norse plógr (“plough (the implement)”), both from Proto-Germanic *plōgaz, *plōguz (“plough”). Cognate with Scots pleuch, plou, North Frisian plog, West Frisian ploech, Low German Ploog, Dutch ploeg, Russian плуг (plug), German Pflug, Danish plov, Swedish and Norwegian plog, Icelandic plógur. Replaced Old English sulh (“plough, furrow”); see sullow.

der

It's been three hours since a plough came through here, and now you can hardly even tell that it did! [the snow keeps falling heavily]

Any of several other tools or implements that cut and push material.

A bookbinder's implement for trimming or shaving off the edges of books.


gad

From Middle English gad, gadde, borrowed from Old Norse gaddr (“goad, spike”), from Proto-Germanic *gazdaz (“spike, rod, stake”). Doublet of goad and yard.

I will go get a leaf of brass, / And with a gad of steel will write these words.

c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

Frank was able to keep his eyes open long enough to check his bed with a miner's gad and douse the electric lamp

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 327:

(especially mining) A pointed metal tool for breaking or chiselling rock.


cleaver

From Middle English clevere, equivalent to cleave + -er.

When he came to Nottingham, he entered that part of the market where butchers stood, and took up his inn in the best place he could find. Next, he opened his stall and spread his meat upon the bench, then, taking his cleaver and steel and clattering them together, he trolled aloud in merry tones:...

1883, Howard Pyle, chapter V, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC:

Concurrently with Flay's visualization of the cleaver falling—the cleaver fell.

A squarish, heavy knife used by butchers for hacking through bones, etc.

(music, Bahamas) A type of clave, or rhythm stick, a concussive musical instrument used in traditional Bahamian music.

Conte has broken the mould further with the suggestion he might escape the Abramovich cleaver, becoming the first of his line to leave by his own volition.

2017 May 13, Barney Ronay, “Antonio Conte’s brilliance has turned Chelsea’s pop-up team into champions”, in the Guardian:

(figurative) The act of eliminating someone or something, especially when done by someone with a history of other eliminations; a dismissal, rejection, or removal.

(rowing) A type of oar blade with an asymmetric, mostly rectangular shape that resembles a cleaving knife.

(geometry) A line segment that bisects the perimeter of a triangle and has one endpoint at the midpoint of one of the triangle's three sides.


mallet

From Middle English malet, maylet, from Old French mallet, maillet (“a wooden hammer, mallet”), diminutive of mal, mail (“a hammer”), from Latin malleus (“a hammer, mall, mallet”).

The Mallet of arms, according to the representation of it given by Father Daniel, exactly resembles the wooden instrument of that name, now in use, except in the length of the handle, it was like the hammer of arms, to be used with both hands, indeed it differed very little from that weapon in its form.

1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 51:

(weaponry) A weapon resembling the tool, but typically much larger.


fire drill

There is no machine on earth so potent, yet so simple and elegant, as the two sticks of the Native American fire drill;

1999, Paul Douglas Campbell, Survival Skills of Native California, →ISBN, page 4:

A fire-starting tool consisting of a wooden rod and some primitive means of rapidly rotating the rod on a flat surface like a drill until tinder can be ignited.


stapler

(loosely) Any device for stapling with (small or large) staples, including any office stapler, staple gun, or hammer tacker.


lance

From Middle English launce, from Old French lance, from Latin lancea.

Thy brother’s blood the thirsty earth hath drunk, Broach’d with the steely point of Clifford’s lance[…]

c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], line 15:

The head of the lance was commonly of the leaf form, and sometimes approached that of the lozenge; it was very seldom barbed, although this variety, together with the others, appears upon the Bayeux Tapestry.

1909, Charles Henry Ashdown, European Arms & Armor, page 65:

A weapon of war, consisting of a long shaft or handle and a steel blade or head; a spear carried by horsemen.

What will you do, good greybeard? Break a lance, And run a-tilt at Death within a chair?

1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], line 49:

A wooden spear, sometimes hollow, used in jousting or tilting, designed to shatter on impact with the opposing knight’s armour.

копие

wooden weapon used in jousting or tilting


lance

en-verb

lance (third-person singular simple present lances, present participle lancing, simple past and past participle lanced)

lances (present singular third-person)
lancing (participle present)
lanced (participle past)
lanced (past)

To throw in the manner of a lance; to lanch.


flounder

From Middle English flowndre, from Anglo-Norman floundre, from Old Northern French flondre, from Old Norse flyðra, from Proto-Germanic *flunþrijǭ. Cognate with Danish flynder, German Flunder, Swedish flundra.

A bootmaker's tool for crimping boot fronts.


spud

From Middle English spudde (“small knife”). Origin unknown; probably related to Danish spyd, Old Norse spjót (“spear”), German Spieß (“spear; spike; skewer”). Compare English spit (“sharp, pointed rod”). The use of the term for a potato was perhaps first used in New Zealand and Australian dialect and slang.


auger

From a rebracketing of Middle English a nauger (seen as an + auger), from Old English nafugār (“nave drill”, literally “nave spear”), from Proto-West Germanic *nabugaiʀ, from Proto-Germanic *nabōgaizaz. Cognate with Dutch avegaar.

inh

A snake or plumber's snake (plumbing tool).


dibble

Possibly dib (“to dab lightly”) + -le (frequentative suffix indicating repetition or continuousness); however, the word dibble is attested earlier than dib.

suffix

Pol[ixenes] Then make you[r] Garden rich in Gilly'vors, / And do not call them baſtards. / Per[dita] Ile not put / The Dible in earth, to ſet one ſlip of them: […]

c.''' 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act IV, scene iv, page 292, column 1:

Earth'd up, here lies an imp o' hell, / Planted by Satan's dibble— / Poor silly wretch, he's damned himsel', / To save the Lord the trouble.

1794, Robert Burns, Allan Cunningham, “LX. On a Suicide.”, in The Works of Robert Burns; with His Life, by Allan Cunningham. … In Eight Volumes, volume III, London: James Cochrane and Co. 11, Waterloo Place, published 1834, →OCLC, page 325:

In sowing time ne'er would I dibble take, / Or drop a seed, till thou wast wide awake; […]

1818, John Keats, Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: Printed for Taylor and Hessey, 93, Fleet Street, →OCLC, book III, page 112, lines 153–154:

A pointed implement used to make holes in the ground in which to set out plants or to plant seeds.


gouge

en-noun

gouge (countable and uncountable, plural gouges)

From Middle English gouge (“chisel with concave blade; gouge”), from Old French gouge, goi (“gouge”), from Late Latin goia, gubia, gulbia (“chisel; piercer”), borrowed from Gaulish *gulbiā, from Proto-Celtic *gulbā, *gulbi, *gulbīnos (“beak, bill”). The English word is cognate with Italian gorbia, gubbia (“ferrule”), Old Breton golb, Old Irish gulba (“beak”), Portuguese goiva, Scottish Gaelic gilb (“chisel”), Spanish gubia (“chisel, gouge”), Welsh gylf (“beak; pointed instrument”), gylyf (“sickle”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

inh

The "steeple" was a little cupola, reared on the very centre of the roof, on four tall pillars of pine, that were fluted with a gouge, and loaded with mouldings.

1823, [James Fenimore Cooper], chapter VIII, in The Pioneers, or The Sources of the Susquehanna; […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: Charles Wiley; […], →OCLC, page 118:

The cutting [of letter blocks] is effected by chisels and gouges of the usual kinds, and is the work of a class of artizans called 'Wood letter Cutters,' or 'Wood-type Cutters.'

1842 January 22, “On Printing Posting-bills”, in The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, volume XI (New Series), number 626, London: Charles Knight & Co., →OCLC, page 30, column 2:

Now hollow out the inside of the boat with a gouge or gouges. ("Firmer" gouges, ground on the outside of the curve, are used. "Paring" gouges are useless.)

1922 August, H. Hambley Tregoning, “A Model 18-Footer Yacht, and How to Build and Sail Her”, in The Boy’s Own Paper, volume XLV, part 10, London: “Boy’s Own Paper” Office, […], →OCLC, page 697, column 1:

The six most common woodturning tools you should know about are: gouge, skew, parting tool, spear-point, round-nose, and flat-nose. The gouge is a hollow, round-nose chisel used to rough-cut blanks into cylinders and for making cove cuts. Gouges can be used for cutting or scraping.

1985 April, Rosario Capotosto, “Become a Woodturning Expert: Part One”, in John A. Linkletter, editor, Popular Mechanics, volume 162, number 4, New York, N.Y.: The Hearst Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 104, column 2:

A chisel with a curved blade for cutting or scooping channels, grooves, or holes in wood, stone, etc.

In plate II. are design for two backs of books. The first figure, which presents an appearance of exceeding richness, is executed with one sole tool, viz. No. 10, and a small gouge for the sides of the lettering-piece.

1835, John Andrews Arnett [pseudonym; John Hannett], “Combination of Tools”, in Bibliopegia; or, The Art of Bookbinding, in All Its Branches. […], London: Richard Groombridge; Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd; Dublin: W. F. Wakeman; New York, N.Y.: W. Jackson, →OCLC, part II (Of Finishing), page 128:

A bookbinder's tool with a curved face, used for blind tooling or gilding.

Gouge. […] A shaped incising-tool used for cutting out forms or blanks for gloves, envelopes, or other objects cut to a shape from fabric, leather, or paper.

[1875, Edward H[enry] Knight, “Gouge”, in Knight’s American Mechanical Dictionary: […], volumes II (Ena–Pan), New York, N.Y.: J. B. Ford and Company, →OCLC, page 997, column 1:

An incising tool that cuts blanks or forms for envelopes, gloves, etc., from leather, paper, or other materials.


jigger

→ Catalan: gigre

From jig + -er (agent suffix). Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary suggests a possible link to Old High German gīga (“fiddle”).

Hand jiggers consisted of two iron frames with a spindle in each - the driving spindle with its iron belt pulley approximately 20 inches in diameter and the driven spindle with a small wooden pulley.

(pottery) A horizontal lathe used in producing flatware.

(golf, dated) A golf club used to play low flying shots to the putting green from short distances.


laster

A tool for stretching leather on a last.


lister

Alternative form of leister (“fish spear”).


lister

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

A good program lister is helpful here, since many language processors allow multi-statement lines. For BASIC, FORTRAN, PASCAL, and similar languages, the lister can split multi-statement lines, ensure there are blanks between keywords […]

1984, John C. Nash, Effective scientific problem solving with small computers, page 113:

One who, or that which, lists or produces a listing.

A person or organisation that creates or maintains lists.

(birdwatching) A birdwatcher who keeps track of birds using different checklists.


lister

Compare list (“a strip, border”), probably applied to the furrow or the ridge of earth along the furrow.

A double-mouldboard plough that throws a deep furrow and at the same time plants and covers grain in the bottom of the furrow.


railer

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

Thus ſay the common People that knovv him, A Saint abroad, and a Devil at home: His poor Family finds it ſo, he is ſuch a churl, ſuch a railer at, and ſo unreaſonable vvith his Servants, that they neither knovv hovv to do for, or ſpeak to him.

1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, pages 106–107:


rimer

A tool for shaping the rimes of a ladder.


tusker

tuskers (plural)
tuskar (alternative)
toysker (alternative)
tushkar (alternative)
tushker (alternative)
twiscar (alternative)

From Old Norse torfskeri, from torf (“turf”) + skera (“to cut”), whence also Scottish Gaelic tairsgear, toirsgear and later forms like toirsgein (assimilated to sgian (“knife”)). Known in print from the early 19th century, but doubtless much older.

(UK, especially Scotland, Orkney, Shetland) A tool used in peat cutting, a type of spade similar to a cascrom.


dolly

Welsh: doli

From doll + -y, from the given name Dorothy, originally applied either to a woman or female pet or to a children's toy, and expanded to refer to various types of contrivances or devices. The Online Etymology Dictionary, while considering the reason for applying it to such devices unobvious, compares how the names jack, jenny and jimmy are also applied to devices.

rattaat

term not specific to bridge construction

The dolly tub or rinsing bucket, fig. 630., has an upright shaft which bears the vane or dolly a b, turned by the winch handle.

1840, Andrew Ure, A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, page 751:

A device turned on a vertical axis by a handle or a winch, giving a circular motion to ore being washed.

A, is the steam or air cylinder for forcing the dolly B, hard against the rivet head while rivetting: when used for making rivets the dolly B, is unshipped, and the rivet heading apparatus substituted.

1864, William Newton, “To Andrew Shanks, of Robert-street, Adelphi, for an improved rivetting machine”, in Newton's London Journal of Arts, page 279:

A tool with an indented head for shaping the head of a rivet.


ladder

Bislama: lada

Pijin: lada

From Middle English ladder, laddre, from Old English hlǣder, from Proto-West Germanic *hlaidriju, from Proto-Germanic *hlaidrijō, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlóydʰrom, from *ḱley- (“to lean”).
Compare Scots ledder, North Frisian ladder, Saterland Frisian Laadere, West Frisian ljedder, Dutch ladder, leer, German Leiter); also Old Irish clithar (“hedge”), Umbrian 𐌊𐌋𐌄𐌈𐌓𐌀𐌌 (kleθram, “stretcher”)). See lean, which is related to lid.
Further cognates include Ashkun istrī, Kamkata-viri c̣ik, Prasuni čik, čix, Waigali c̣iř, Sanskrit श्रिति (śrití).

The form of a man was seen to enter, and both the females rushed up the ladder, as if equally afraid of the consequences. The stranger secured the door, and first examining the lower room with great care, he cautiously ascended the ladder.

1851, J[ames] Fenimore Cooper, “Chapter XXIII”, in The Pathfinder; or, The Inland Sea … Complete in One Volume. Revised and Corrected, with a New Introduction, Notes, &c., by the Author (The Leather-stocking Tales; III), rev. edition, New York, N.Y.: George P[almer] Putnam, 155 Broadway, →OCLC, page 411:

Ladders are heavy and unwieldy. Handle them properly to avoid damaging property and to make sure you don't injure yourself. Carry a ladder upright, not slung across your shoulder. Hold the ladder vertically, bend your knees slightly, then rock the ladder back against your shoulder. Grip one rung lower down while you support the ladder at head height with your other hand, and then straighten your knees.

2009, Albert Jackson, David Day, Popular Mechanics Complete Home How-To, rev. edition, New York, N.Y.: Hearst Books, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., →ISBN, page 31:

And why wouldn't I just turn around, not take a chance on the bad luck of walking under a ladder? Because, beyond it, there was Pluckie. My little dog was leashed to a bush, lunging and barking. If the leash came loose, her lunge could send her tumbling down the mountainside.

2014, Linda O. Johnston, Lost under a Ladder, Woodbury, Minn.: Midnight Ink, Llewellyn Worldwide, →ISBN:

A frame, usually portable, of wood, metal, or rope, used for ascent and descent, consisting of two side pieces to which are fastened rungs (cross strips or rounds acting as steps).

The most dramatic introduction to the idea of how stones relate to each other over distance is how players react when a ladder (shicho, "she-ko"^([sic]) in Japanese) [シチョウ (shichō)] develops. […] Ouch! This is finding out about the ladder, which is called that because of the steplike shape that the defending stones are forced into.

2003, Peter Shotwell, Go! More Than a Game, Boston, Mass.: Tuttle Publishing, →ISBN:

(go) A sequence of moves following a zigzag pattern and ultimately leading to the capture of the attacked stones.


ladder

en-verb

ladder (third-person singular simple present ladders, present participle laddering, simple past and past participle laddered)

ladders (present singular third-person)
laddering (participle present)
laddered (participle past)
laddered (past)
ledder (alternative)

For eighteen minutes Revenge pounded the dockyard area at an average range of 15,700 yards, spreading for line and laddering for range to a prearranged plan to cover the whole target area.

2007, Peter Smith, Naval Warfare in the English Channel: 1939-1945, page 134:

Laddering made it possible to get a few hits on a fast-moving, often manoeuvring, target.

2014, Norman Friedman, Naval Anti-Aircraft Guns & Gunnery:

(UK, naval slang) To close in on a target with successive salvos, increasing or decreasing the shot range as necessary.

offences to be taken into consideration
offence to be taken into consideration

(UK, law enforcement, of a police officer) To corruptly coerce a convicted offender to admit to offences to be taken into consideration which they do not actually believe they committed, as a way to artificially increase the rate of solved crimes.


lap

lap (third-person singular simple present laps, present participle lapping, simple past and past participle lapped or (archaic) lapt)

laps (present singular third-person)
lapping (participle present)
lapped (participle past)
lapped (past)
lapt (archaic participle past)
lapt (archaic past)

From Middle English lappen (“to fold, wrap”) from earlier wlappen (“to fold, wrap”), from Old English *wlappan, *wlæppan, *wlappian (“to wrap”), from Proto-Germanic *wlapp-, *wrapp- (“to wrap, fold, roll up, turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *werb- (“to bend, turn”).
Cognate with Middle Dutch lappen (“to wrap up, embrace”), dialectal Danish vravle (“to wind”), Old Italian goluppare (“to wrap, fold up”) (from Germanic). Doublet of wrap. Also related to envelop, develop.
The sense of "to get a lap ahead (of someone) on a track" is from 1847, on notion of "overlapping." The noun meaning "a turn around a track" (1861) is from this sense.

cog

to lap a bandage around a finger

About the paper […] I lapped several times a slender thread of very black silk.

1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC:

(transitive) to wrap around, enwrap, wrap up


lap

en:piece of soft metal charged with polishing compound

A piece of brass, lead, or other soft metal, used to hold a cutting or polishing powder in cutting glass, gems, etc. or in polishing cutlery or in toolmaking. It is usually in the form of a wheel or disk that revolves on a vertical axis.


pry

The noun is probably a back-formation from prise, prize (“tool for levering, lever”), construed as the plural of pry.
The verb is either derived from the noun, or is a back-formation from prise (“to force open with a lever”), construed as pries, the third-person singular present form of pry.

back-formation

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-pry.wav

(East Anglia, US) A tool for levering; a crowbar, a lever.


scraper

ҡырғыс

an instrument by which anything is scraped

An instrument with which anything is scraped.


scythe

scythes (plural)
sithe (alternative)
sythe (alternative)
zive (alternative)

From Middle English sythe, sithe, from Old English sīþe, sīgþe, sigdi (“sickle”), from Proto-West Germanic *sigiþi, from Proto-Germanic *sigiþiz, *sigiþō, derived from *seg- (“saw”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”).
Immediate Germanic cognates include Middle Low German sēgede, Dutch zicht, Icelandic sigð (all “sickle”). More distantly related with Dutch zeis, German Sense (both “scythe”). Also akin to English saw, which see.
The silent c crept in during the early 15th century owing to pseudoetymological association with Medieval Latin scissor (“tailor, carver”), from Latin scindere (“to cut, rend, split”).
The verb, which was first used in the intransitive sense, is from the noun.

noncog

(historical) A scythe-shaped blade attached to ancient war chariots.


scythe

en-verb

scythe (third-person singular simple present scythes, present participle scything, simple past and past participle scythed)

scythes (present singular third-person)
scything (participle present)
scythed (participle past)
scythed (past)
sithe (alternative)
sythe (alternative)
zive (alternative)

(transitive) To cut off as with a scythe; to mow.

The boy began to keen, and the high-pitched noise scythed through Song's head.

2011, Catherine Sampson, The Pool of Unease:

The smaller shells make a complete slaughterhouse of the bridge, and the splinters scythe through anyone out on deck.

2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 20:09 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 2022-11-03:

(intransitive, figurative, often with through) To attack or injure as if cutting.


shaver

From Middle English schaver; equivalent to shave + -er.
In its meaning of a boy, lad, recorded since 1592, the word shaver has also been postulated to derive from Romani chavo (“young man”), which also gives us the modern slang chav, ultimately derived from Sanskrit छा (chā, “young animal”).

A tool or machine for shaving; an electric razor.