ax definition | Dictionary.com

ax

[aks]

noun, plural ax⋅es [ak-siz]

, verb, axed, ax⋅ing.

–noun

1.	an instrument with a bladed head on a handle or helve, used for hewing, cleaving, chopping, etc.

2.	Jazz Slang. any musical instrument.

the ax, Informal.

a.	dismissal from employment: to get the ax.

b.	expulsion from school.

c.	rejection by a lover, friend, etc.: His girlfriend gave him the ax.

d.	any usually summary removal or curtailment.

–verb (used with object)

4.	to shape or trim with an ax.

5.	to chop, split, destroy, break open, etc., with an ax: The firemen had to ax the door to reach the fire.

6.	Informal. to dismiss, restrict, or destroy brutally, as if with an ax: The main office axed those in the field who didn't meet their quota. Congress axed the budget. Also, axe.

—Idiom

7.	have an ax to grind, to have a personal or selfish motive: His interest may be sincere, but I suspect he has an ax to grind.

Origin:
bef. 1000; ME; ax(e), ex(e), OE æx, æces; akin to Goth aquizi, ON øx, ǫx, OHG acc(h)us, a(c)kus (G Axt), MHG pl. exa < Gmc *akwiz-, akuz-, aksi- ≪ *ákəs, áks-; L ascia (< *acsiā), Gk ax

nē; < IE *ag-s-

Related forms:

axlike, adjective

ax-

var. of axi-, esp. before a vowel.

ax.

axiom.

axi-

a combining form meaning “axis”: axial; axilemma.

Also, axo-; especially before a vowel, ax-.

Origin:
comb. form repr. L axis axle, wheel; c. Gk áxōn, Skt ákṣas, Lith ašìs, OCS osĭ, OE eax

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To ax

ax¹ or axe (āks)

n. pl. ax·es (āk'sĭz)

A tool with a bladed, usually heavy head mounted crosswise on a handle, used for felling trees or chopping wood.
Any of various bladed, hand-held implements used as a cutting tool or weapon.
Informal A sudden termination of employment: My colleague got the ax yesterday.
Slang A musical instrument, especially a guitar.

tr.v. axed, ax·ing, ax·es

To chop or fell with or as if with an ax: axed down the saplings; axed out a foothold in the ice.
Informal To remove ruthlessly or suddenly: a social program that was axed to effectuate budget cuts.

[Middle English, from Old English æx.]

ax² (āks)

v. ax·ed, ax·ing, ax·es Nonstandard
Variant of ask.

Our Living Language : Ax, a common nonstandard variant of ask, is often identified as an especially salient feature of African American Vernacular English. While it is true that the form is frequent in the speech of African Americans, it used to be common in the speech of white Americans as well, especially in the South and in the middle sections of the U.S. It was once common among New Englanders, but has largely died out there as a local feature. The widespread use of this pronunciation should not be surprising since ax is a very old word in English, having been used in England for over 1,000 years. In Old English we find both āscian and ācsian, and in Middle English both asken and axen. Moreover, the forms with cs or x had no stigma associated with them. Chaucer used asken and axen interchangeably, as in the lines "I wol aske, if it hir will be/To be my wyf" and "Men axed hym, what sholde bifalle," both from The Canterbury Tales. The forms in x arose from the forms in sk by a linguistic process called metathesis, in which two sounds are reversed. The x thus represents (ks), the flipped version of (sk). Metathesis is a common linguistic process around the world and does not arise from a defect in speaking. Nevertheless, ax has become stigmatized as substandard—a fate that has befallen other words, like ain't, that were once perfectly acceptable in literate circles.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Ax\, Axe \Axe\,, n. [OE. ax, axe, AS. eax, [ae]x, acas; akin to D. akse, OS. accus, OHG. acchus, G. axt, Icel. ["o]x, ["o]xi, Sw. yxe, Dan. ["o]kse, Goth. aqizi, Gr. ?, L. ascia; not akin to E. acute.] A tool or instrument of steel, or of iron with a steel edge or blade, for felling trees, chopping and splitting wood, hewing timber, etc. It is wielded by a wooden helve or handle, so fixed in a socket or eye as to be in the same plane with the blade. The broadax, or carpenter's ax, is an ax for hewing timber, made heavier than the chopping ax, and with a broader and thinner blade and a shorter handle.

Note: The ancient battle-ax had sometimes a double edge.

Note: The word is used adjectively or in combination; as, axhead or ax head; ax helve; ax handle; ax shaft; ax-shaped; axlike.

Note: This word was originally spelt with e, axe; and so also was nearly every corresponding word of one syllable: as, flaxe, taxe, waxe, sixe, mixe, pixe, oxe, fluxe, etc. This superfluous e is not dropped; so that, in more than a hundred words ending in x, no one thinks of retaining the e except in axe. Analogy requires its exclusion here.

Note: "The spelling ax is better on every ground, of etymology, phonology, and analogy, than axe, which has of late become prevalent." --New English Dict. (Murray).

Ax\, v. t. & i. [OE. axien and asken. See Ask.] To ask; to inquire or inquire of.

Note: This word is from Saxon, and is as old as the English language. Formerly it was in good use, but now is regarded as a vulgarism. It is still dialectic in England, and is sometimes heard among the uneducated in the United States. "And Pilate axide him, Art thou king of Jewis?" "Or if he axea fish." --Wyclif. 'bdThe king axed after your Grace's welfare." --Pegge.

Language Translation for : ax

Spanish: espiga,

German: die Ähre,

Japanese: 穂

More Translations »

Main Entry: ax
Function: abbreviation
axis

ax abbr.
axis

In addition to the idiom beginning with ax, also see get the ax.

AX
ask (shortwave transmission)

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