Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A double-bladed battle-ax, especially that carried by the Northern nations.
- noun A broadsword: so called from a misunderstanding of the word. See the quotation.
- noun A kind of double ax; a kind of mattock the blade of which has one end shaped like an ax and the other like an adz.
- noun A mortising-tool.
- noun A reaping-hook.
- noun Same as
roaring boy (seeroaring ).
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An
axe with two cuttingblades - noun A
mattock - noun A double bladed tool used in gate type hurdle making for cutting out mortices, with a flat chisel and a mortice chisel or hook, similar to the much larger french carpenter's tool, the bisaigue (or besaigue)
- noun obsolete A double-bladed
halberd orbattle-axe
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Middle English twibill, from Old English twibill, from twī- ("double") + bill ("edge, blade"). Note bill probably from German 'beil' or Dutch 'bijl' (axe) see also billhook
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Examples
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A round buckler he bore and a huge twibill, which no man of the kindred could well wield save himself; and it was done both blade and shaft with knots and runes in gold; and he loved that twibill well, and called it the Wolf's Sister.
The House of the Wolfings William Morris 1865
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We have ‘twilight’, but ‘twibill’ = bipennis (Chapman) is extinct.
English Past and Present Richard Chenevix Trench 1846
hernesheir commented on the word twibill
Run! Here comes Twouble and he's swingin' a twibill!
December 7, 2011