tomahawk

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a light axe or hatchet associated historically with Indigenous peoples of North America and later made in many specialized forms

   The carefully worked stone tomahawk had been placed among the objects in the bird's bower.

2. 2
   verb

   to strike, cut, or kill with a tomahawk

   The worker tomahawked the small branches from the fallen trunk.

Borrowed from an Eastern Algonquian language, most likely Powhatan tamahaac or a related form meaning a cutting tool or axe. English applied the name to Indigenous stone and metal tools and later to lightweight axes of similar form.

Topics