pickax. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

pickax

SYLLABICATION:	pick·ax
PRONUNCIATION:	pkks
VARIANT FORMS:	or pick·axe
NOUN:	A pick, especially with one end of the head pointed and the other end with a chisel edge for cutting through roots.
VERB:	Inflected forms: pick·axed, pick·ax·ing, pick·ax·es
INTRANSITIVE VERB:	To use a pickax.
TRANSITIVE VERB:	To use a pickax on.
ETYMOLOGY:	Middle English picax, alteration (influenced by ax, ax) of picas, from Old French picois (from pic, pick) and from Medieval Latin pcsa, both probably from Latin pcus, woodpecker.


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.