pickaxe

Everyday

A pickaxe is a heavy tool with a long wooden handle and a curved metal head with a point on one or both ends, used for breaking hard ground, rock or ice. tree →

In the lessons

In history lessons miners, gold rush diggers and road builders use pickaxes; in stories and video games a pickaxe is a digging tool. In safety, heavy tools are for adults. Phrases: swing a pickaxe, a miner's pickaxe.

Examples

• The miner swung his pickaxe at the rock. tree →
• Gold rush diggers carried pickaxes and shovels. tree →
• Workers broke up the road with a pickaxe. tree →
• In the game you need a pickaxe to dig for diamonds. tree →
• A pickaxe is too heavy for small children to use. tree →
• The climbers used an ice axe, a kind of small pickaxe. tree →
• Jack took a horn, a shovel, a pickaxe, his armor, and a dark lantern, and one winter’s evening he went to the mount. tree →

Note

Countable: plural «pickaxes». US spelling is often «pickax». Often shortened to «pick». Not the same as an axe, which has a flat blade for chopping wood.