Definition

1. Verb:
   • To cut or chop with heavy blows, typically using an axe or similar tool: The primary meaning refers to the action of striking something repeatedly with force to shape it or cut it down.
   • To make or form by cutting with a heavy tool: This sense involves shaping or creating something from a raw material like wood or stone through the act of hewing.

Examples of Usage

• Verb:
  • The lumberjack will hew the fallen tree into logs.
  • Sculptors of old would hew statues from blocks of marble.
  • They had to hew a path through the dense jungle.

Advanced Usage

• "to hew to": To adhere strictly or conform closely to a principle, rule, or standard. This is a figurative use derived from the idea of staying close to a line when cutting.
  • The company's policies hew to the highest ethical standards.

Variants and Related Words

• Hewer (n): A person who hews, especially one who cuts coal from a seam or stone from a quarry.
  • The hewers worked deep in the mine.

Synonyms

• Chop: To cut with a quick, heavy blow.
• Fell: To cut down (a tree).
• Shape: To form or create, especially from a material.
• Carve: To cut into a material to create a shape, often with more detail than hewing.

Phrasal Verbs / Related Phrases

• Hew down: To cut down or cause to fall by hewing.

  • They plan to hew down the dead trees for safety.

• Hew out: To create or form something by hewing.

  • The pioneers hewed out a settlement from the wilderness.

Related Idioms

• "To hew one's own path": To forge one's own way independently, often through difficult circumstances. This idiom uses the literal image of clearing a path by cutting.
  • She decided to leave the family business and hew her own path in the art world.

Verb

1. strike with an axe; cut down, strike
   • hew an oak
2. make or shape as with an axe
   • hew out a path in the rock