helve

noun
/hɛlv/

Etymology

From Middle English helfe, helve; from Old English hielfe, from Proto-Germanic *halbiją. Probably cognate to English half, although Etymonline claims relation from halter and helm.

  1. inherited from *halbiją
  2. inherited from hielfe
  3. inherited from helfe

Definitions

  1. The handle or haft of a tool or weapon.

    • It was the bad ax-helve someone had sold me— / “Made on machine,” he said, plowing the grain […]
    • Happily they were only sketchily armed, the group-leaders carried pistols and pick-helves.
  2. A forge hammer lifted by a cam acting on the helve between the fulcrum and the head.

  3. To furnish (an axe, etc.) with a helve.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for helve. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA