BATTLE-AXE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does battle-axe mean? 

• BATTLE-AXE (noun)
  The noun BATTLE-AXE has 2 senses:

1. a sharp-tongued domineering wife

2. a broadax used as a weapon

  Familiarity information: BATTLE-AXE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BATTLE-AXE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A sharp-tongued domineering wife

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

battle-ax; battle-axe

Hypernyms ("battle-axe" is a kind of...):

married woman; wife (a married woman; a man's partner in marriage)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A broadax used as a weapon

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

battle-ax; battle-axe

Hypernyms ("battle-axe" is a kind of...):

broadax; broadaxe (a large ax with a broad cutting blade)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "battle-axe"):

Lochaber ax (a battle-ax formerly used by Scottish Highlanders)

poleax; poleaxe (a battle ax used in the Middle Ages; a long handled ax and a pick)

Holonyms ("battle-axe" is a part of...):

halberd (a pike fitted with an ax head)

 Context examples 

Horse and spear had been set aside, but on foot, with sword and battle-axe, their broad shields slung in front of them, the chivalry of Spain rushed to the attack.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

From one of these I picked a battle-axe, and then, leaving my candle behind me, I crept on tiptoe down the passage and peeped in at the open door.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was clear that the natives had come out upon the war-path, for every man carried his spear—a long bamboo tipped with bone—his bow and arrows, and some sort of club or stone battle-axe slung at his side.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Sir Thomas Wake was beaten to the ground with a battle-axe—that being the weapon which he had selected—and had to be carried to his pavilion.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Steel caps, mail brigandines, white surcoats with the red lion of St. George, and sword or battle-axe swinging from their belts, completed this equipment, while in some cases the murderous maule or five-foot mallet was hung across the bowstave, being fastened to their leathern shoulder-belt by a hook in the centre of the handle.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My master has heard that there is jousting here, and prospect of honorable advancement, so he has come to ask that some English cavalier will vouchsafe for the love of his lady to run a course with sharpened lances with him, or to meet him with sword, mace, battle-axe, or dagger.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I fear, mon gar., that they have taught thee but badly at Beaulieu, for surely a bishop knows more of what is right and what is ill than an abbot can do, and I myself with these very eyes saw the Bishop of Lincoln hew into a Scottish hobeler with a battle-axe, which was a passing strange way of showing him that he loved him.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)