billhook

Meanings

Noun

• A medieval polearm with a similar construct, fitted to a long handle, sometimes with an L-shaped tine or a spike protruding from the side or the end of the blade for tackling the opponent; a bill
• An agricultural implement often with a curved or hooked end to the blade used for pruning or cutting thick, woody plants.
• Written as bill-hook: a part of the knotting mechanism in a reaper-binder or baler (agricultural machinery).
• Written as bill hook: a spiked hook used in offices and shops for hanging bills or other small papers such as receipts.
• Written as bill hook: a sharply pointed spike growing from the tip of the upper mandible of the hatchlings of honeyguides, used to destroy the eggs and kill the chicks of the host species.

Verb

• To use a billhook

Related

Similar words

• handbill, pruning hook, hack, hacker, hedging bill, hedging-bill, hedge bill, bill, broom hook, block hook, Yorkshire bill, vine hook

Origin

• Earliest use in weapon (and later, agricultural) sense, bill + hook; other senses formed anew from various meanings of bill.