English

A billhook (agricultural implement).

Alternative forms

• bill-hook
• bill hook

Noun

billhook ‎(plural billhooks)

1. An agricultural implement often with a curved or hooked end to the blade used for pruning or cutting thick, woody plants.
   • 1869, Richard D. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, chapter 38

     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.

   • 1887, Hardy, The Woodlanders, chapter 19:

     With a small billhook he carefully freed the collar of the tree from twigs and patches of moss which incrusted it to a height of a foot or two above the ground, an operation comparable to the "little toilet" of the executioner's victim.

2. (weaponry) A medieval polearm with a similar construct, 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
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.

Translations

Synonyms

• handbill, pruning hook, hack, hacker, hedging bill, hedging-bill, hedge bill, bill, broom hook, block hook, Yorkshire bill, vine hook

Verb

billhook ‎(third-person singular simple present billhooks, present participle billhooking, simple past and past participle billhooked)

1. To use a billhook
   • 2010, Arto Paasilinna, The Year of the Hare: A Novel

     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.

Anagrams

• hookbill