billhook

C2+ Topic:General Vocabulary

US /ˈbɪlˌhʊk/ UK /ˈbɪlhʊk/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a curved blade on a handle, used for pruning and cutting brush

He cleared the hedge with a few strokes of his billhook.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a curved blade on a handle,... prunermachete sickleslasher

Word family

Related forms bill hook

Etymology

A compound of bill ('a cutting tool, a hooked blade', from Old English bil) + hook (Old English hōc), referring to the curved blade.

bil Old English hōc Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# billhook

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈbɪlˌhʊk/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈbɪlhʊk/

## Meanings
1. a curved blade on a handle, used for pruning and cutting brush

## Examples
- He cleared the hedge with a few strokes of his billhook.

## Synonyms
- pruner
- machete
- sickle
- slasher

## Related Forms
- bill
- hook

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: bil
- Root: hōc

## Etymology
A compound of bill ('a cutting tool, a hooked blade', from Old English bil) + hook (Old English hōc), referring to the curved blade.

## AI Etymology
Billhook is a compound of bill ('a cutting tool, a hooked blade', from Old English bil) + hook (Old English hōc), referring to the curved blade. The historical trail runs through bil in Old English and hōc in Old English. Morphologically, billhook is transparent: it is a compound of bill ('a cutting tool, a hooked blade', from Old English bil) + hook (Old English hōc), referring to the curved blade. Used as a noun, billhook now means "a curved blade on a handle, used for pruning and cutting brush", so the present definition can be read against the older forms and meanings. The same lexical family is also visible in related forms such as bill and hook. The modern word remains analyzable through its parts, which makes the semantic connection unusually direct.

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

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