Billhook

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A curved cutting tool with a hooked blade used for pruning branches, cutting vegetation, or harvesting crops
2. A sharp-edged implement with a hooked or curved blade designed for cutting branches, clearing undergrowth, and harvesting vegetation
3. An agricultural tool featuring a sickle-like or curved cutting edge used to prune plants, trim foliage, and reap crops
4. A tool featuring a curved or hooked blade designed for severing branches, clearing undergrowth, and harvesting plants
5. An implement with a bent, sharp-edged blade employed to prune trees, trim vegetation, and cut agricultural crops

Etymology: A billhook is a compound of two words that each once had a far more violent career than the tool suggests. The "bill" element is an old term for a bladed pike, a long polearm with a hooked or axe-like blade on the end, and the hook part is the familiar curved shape. Together they named a weapon before they named a farm implement, and the agricultural sense came later. The tool's modern job, cutting hedges, lopping branches and clearing brush, is what the blade's curve is built for. The pull-in motion of a hooked edge catches stems and draws them into the cut, which is why the shape survived after the pike it was first named for had gone out of use.

Synonyms: hook, sickle, cutter, blade, scythe