twibill
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English
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/Hurdle_maker%27s_twybill.jpg/220px-Hurdle_maker%27s_twybill.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/Dobbelthakke_fra_Bergheim_i_Bjugn_%2819885902401%29.jpg/220px-Dobbelthakke_fra_Bergheim_i_Bjugn_%2819885902401%29.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/Gymnasium_scene_Petit_Palais_ADUT00337.jpg/220px-Gymnasium_scene_Petit_Palais_ADUT00337.jpg)
Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English twibill, from Old English twibill, from twi- (“double”) + bill (“edge, blade”), see also billhook.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]twibill (plural twibills)
- (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).
- (dialectal, British) A mattock with one blade like an axe and the other like an adze.
- (dialectal, England) A reaping hook, especially for cutting beans and peas.
- (obsolete) A double-bladed halberd or battle-axe.
- 1866, Charles Kingsley, chapter 19, in Hereward the Wake, London: Nelson, page 258:
- [A] little fair-haired man, as broad as he was tall, who heaved up a long “twybill,” or double axe.
Further reading
[edit]Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Carpentry
- English dialectal terms
- British English
- English English
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English terms with quotations
- English terms prefixed with twi-
- en:Agriculture
- en:Tools
- en:Weapons