twibill

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English

Hurdle maker's twibill (1)
Stone twibill (1) head several millennia old from Norway
Gymnasium scene about 490 BCE, showing twibill (2) mattock used for loosening soil in the jumping pit

Alternative forms

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈtwaɪbɪl/, /ˈtwaɪbəl/
  • (etymological) IPA(key): /ˈtwɪbɪl/, /ˈtwɪbəl/

Noun

twibill (plural twibills)

  1. (carpentry) A two-edged tool used in gate-type hurdle-making for cutting out mortises, with a flat chisel and a mortise chisel or hook, similar to the much larger French carpenter's tool, the besaiguë (or bisaiguë).
  2. (dialectal, British) A mattock with one blade like an axe and the other like an adze.
  3. (dialectal, England) A reaping hook, especially for cutting beans and peas.
  4. (obsolete) A double-bladed halberd or battle-axe.
    • 1866, Charles Kingsley, chapter 19, in Hereward the Wake, London: Nelson, page 258:
      little fair-haired man, as broad as he was tall, who heaved up a long “twybill,” or double axe.

Further reading

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