Definition

Noun: A heavy hand tool used for breaking up hard materials, typically consisting of a long wooden handle and a metal head that is pointed at one or both ends.

Usage

A pickax is a tool for manual labor, primarily used for breaking, prying, or digging into hard surfaces like rock, ice, or compacted soil. It is swung to drive the pointed end into the material.

Examples

• The archaeologist carefully used a pickax to break through the hard layer of sediment.
• Miners in the 19th century relied on pickaxes to extract coal from the seams.
• We needed a pickax to break up the frozen ground before we could plant the tree.

Advanced Usage

• "To wield a pickax": To use or swing a pickax. This phrase emphasizes the physical action.
  • The laborers wielded their pickaxes under the hot sun.

Variants and Related Words

• Pickaxe: An alternative spelling, especially common in British English.
• Pick: A general term that can refer to a pickax or similar pointed tools (e.g., ice pick).
• Mattock: A similar digging tool with a broad blade on one side of the head and a pick or axe on the other.

Synonyms

• Pick
• Chopper (in specific contexts, like mining)

Related Phrases

• "Pickax handle": The long wooden shaft of the tool.
  • The pickax handle splintered from the force of the blow.

Noun

1. a heavy iron tool with a wooden handle and a curved head that is pointed on both ends
   • they used picks and sledges to break the rocks