tomahawk

[ tom-uh-hawk ]
See synonyms for tomahawk on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a light ax used by the North American Indians as a weapon and tool.

  2. any of various similar weapons or implements.

  1. (in Australia) a stone hatchet used by Aboriginal peoples.

verb (used with object)
  1. to attack, wound, or kill with or as if with a tomahawk.

Origin of tomahawk

1
First recorded in 1605–15; from Virginia Algonquian (English spelling) tamahaac “hatchet,” equivalent to Proto-Algonquian temah- “to cut (it) off” (unattested ) + -a·kan- “instrument for” (unattested)

Other words from tomahawk

  • tom·a·hawk·er, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use tomahawk in a sentence

  • They attacked it with their tomahawks; but their weapons were blunted against the hard oak, clamped with iron as it was.

    In the Wilds of Florida | W.H.G. Kingston
  • Three Indians, swinging tomahawks and war clubs, sprang out from behind a pile of grape-blasted birch trees.

    Shaman | Robert Shea
  • Their knives and tomahawks were red; fresh scalps dangled from their belts or swung from poles carried over their shoulders.

    Four American Indians | Edson L. Whitney
  • Some struck their tomahawks into the trunks of trees, while others brandished their knives, and uttered direful yells.

    Wild Western Scenes | John Beauchamp Jones
  • This had scarcely been done when it was violently assailed by the tomahawks of the enemy, and a large breach soon effected.

British Dictionary definitions for tomahawk

tomahawk

/ (ˈtɒməˌhɔːk) /


noun
  1. a fighting axe, with a stone or later an iron head, used by the North American Indians

  2. mainly Australian the usual word for hatchet

Origin of tomahawk

1
C17: from Virginia Algonquian tamahaac

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012