Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A cutting tool that has a curved blade set at a right angle to the handle and is used in shaping wood.
  • verb To shape a material using an adze.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an edge tool used to cut and shape wood

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English adesa, of obscure origin.

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Examples

Comments

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  • A phonological oddity. This is the only base form I can think of that ends in /dz/, and there are no native bases ending in /ts/ (only Johnny-come-latelys like 'kibbutz'), yet it's an impeccably Anglo-Saxon native word.

    August 29, 2008

  • I was always impressed by this word's Scrabble-friendly ability to be spelled adz, which looks even stranger.

    August 29, 2008

  • This tool sounds blunt to me. Surely an axe is sharper.

    October 21, 2008

  • Across the sea will come Adze-Head,

    crazed in the head,

    his cloak with hole for the head,

    his stick bent in the head.

    He will chant impiety

    from a table in front of his house;

    all his people will answer

    'Be it thus, Be it thus.'

    --anonymous

    September 19, 2009

  • his cloak with hole for the head

    Wouldn't this be more accurately described as a poncho then? I mean, I know, it doesn't sound nearly quite as sinister. But still....

    September 19, 2009

  • There's something wrong with thesaraheffect's comment, it's italicizing the whole homepage.

    September 19, 2009

  • Well, strictly speaking, it's only the comments below that comment which appear italicized on the homepage. But I don't see how one can necessarily fault thesaraheffect for what is surely a system glitch.

    September 19, 2009

  • If you say so...

    September 19, 2009

  • A poncho??

    *snort*

    September 19, 2009

  • Sionnach: Don't try to steal my glory, if I want to italicize half the home page just you try and stop me! My nothing is safe from my infectious html.

    September 21, 2009

  • You're just avoiding my poncho question, aren't you?

    September 21, 2009

  • A friend of mine formed and coached a girls recreational softball team in Boise Idaho in the late 1970's and named it the "Nadz"... yes, the cheer was what one would expect. Another phonological oddity.

    September 21, 2009

  • "Go Nadz"?

    September 22, 2009

  • Go Nadz! That's it. Was funny seeing even the girls' parents cheering thusly, then sniggering amongst themselves.

    September 22, 2009

  • I suppose one could consider "cloak" an umbrella term for all armless outerwear.

    September 24, 2009

  • ... Why can't we use armless outerwear? It's way cooler.

    September 24, 2009