billhook

Etymology

Earliest use in weapon (and later, agricultural) sense, bill (a bladed pike) + hook; other senses formed anew from various meanings of bill.

noun

1. (weaponry) A medieval polearm, fitted to a long handle, sometimes with an L-shaped tine or a spike protruding from the side or the end of the blade for tackling the opponent; a bill
2. An agricultural implement often with a curved or hooked end to the blade used for pruning or cutting thick, woody plants.
   I worked very hard in the copse of young ash, with my billhook and a shearing-knife; cutting out the saplings where they stooled too close together, making spars to keep for thatching, wall-crooks to drive into the cob, stiles for close sheep hurdles, and handles for rakes, and hoes, and two-bills, of the larger and straighter stuff. 1869, Richard D. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, chapter 38
3. Written as bill-hook: a part of the knotting mechanism in a reaper-binder or baler (agricultural machinery).
4. Written as bill hook: a spiked hook used in offices and shops for hanging bills or other small papers such as receipts.
5. (ornithology) Written as bill hook: a sharply pointed spike growing from the tip of the upper mandible of the hatchlings of honeyguides, used to destroy the eggs and kill the chicks of the host species.

verb

1. To use a billhook
   Toward the end of July, Vatanen took a forestry job. It meant billhooking and chopping excessive undergrowth from the woods on the sandy ridges around Kuhmo and living in a tent with an ever more faithful, almost full- grown hare. 2010, Arto Paasilinna, The Year of the Hare: A Novel