Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A pointed tool for making holes, as in wood or leather.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A pointed instrument for piercing small holes in leather, wood, etc., as the bent-pointed awl of the shoemaker and saddler and the straight-pointed brad-awl of the joiner.
  • noun The popinjay or green woodpecker, Picus or Gecinus viridis.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A pointed instrument for piercing small holes, as in leather or wood; used by shoemakers, saddlers, cabinetmakers, etc. The blade is differently shaped and pointed for different uses, as in the brad awl, saddler's awl, shoemaker's awl, etc.

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

  • noun A pointed instrument for piercing small holes, as in leather or wood; used by shoemakers, saddlers, cabinetmakers, etc. The blade is differently shaped and pointed for different uses, as in the brad awl, saddler's awl, shoemaker's awl, etc.

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

  • noun a pointed tool for marking surfaces or for punching small holes

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English al, aul, from Old English æl; akin to German Ahle, awl, and Sanskrit ārā, goad, awl.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English aul, alle, al, from Old English æl, from Proto-Germanic *ēlō (compare East Frisian älst, Dutch aal, German Ahle), from Proto-Indo-European *Hóleh₂ (compare Khotanese aiysna, Sanskrit अरा (árā))

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Examples

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  • Awl things to awl men.

    July 25, 2008