English

Noun

woodhewer ‎(plural woodhewers)

1. Any of various passerines of subfamily Dendrocolaptinae, found in South America and Central America having a curved bill, stiff tail feathers, and which feed like woodpeckers; a woodcreeper.
   • 1955, Roger Tory Peterson & ‎James Fisher, Wild America, ISBN 0395864976:

     A loud series of descending whistles from the dark shadows was an ivory-billed woodhewer; and an explosive song in the undergrowth, a gray-breasted wood wren.

   • 2011, William Henry Hudson, Birds and Man, ISBN 1775451348, page 22:

     In the two American families of tyrant-birds and woodhewers, neither of which are songsters, there is in some of the closely-related species a remarkable family resemblance in their voices.

   • 2013, Max Hecht, Major Patterns in Vertebrate Evolution, ISBN 1468488511, page 60:

     If they differed, then the woodhewer feature was not a climbing adaptation. Difficulties with this method are illustrated by examination of the toe arrangement in the two groups, anisodactyl in the woodhewers and zygodactyl in the woodpeckers, but both are clearly adapted for climbing on vertical surfaces (Bock and de W. Miller, 1959).

2. Alternative form of wood-hewer
   • 1982, Horatio Colony, “The Natural Ear”, in Collected Works of Horatio Colony - Volume 1, page 576:

     The tree talked like a bird whose feathered weight Nested in him; and he with twisted tongue Could swear like the woodhewer whose dark face Was bright with sweat as he raised up and swung His naked arms with awkwardness and grace.

   • 2005, Meine Pieter van Dijk & ‎Roberta Rabellotti, Enterprise Clusters and Networks in Developing Countries, ISBN 1135777500:

     Construction-related occupations include blockmakers, potmakers, carpenters, woodhewers, masons, builders and hardware store owners; these activities are all carried out by men.

   • 2016, C. M. Woolgar, The Culture of Food in England, 1200-1500, ISBN 0300182368, page 157:

     Additional rations were also given to others at the point when the larder was made: to all the kitchen servants, one from the bakehouse, one from the brewhouse, two gardeners and the woodhewer – and one imagines they too must have been involved in some way in the preparations of the day.

   • 2016, Georg Ebers, Margery (Gred): A Tale of Old Nuremberg, ISBN 1465606513:

     Then, when he had been told all, at first he could not refrain himself and good wishes flowed from his lips as honey from the honey-comb; and he was indeed a right merry sight as, in the joy of his heart, he clapped his arms together across his breast, as a woodhewer may, to warm his hands in winter.