tomahawk
/ˈtɒməhɔːk
/noun
1A light axe used as a tool or weapon by American Indians.He was arrested for possession of a weapon, the tomahawk, and the report indicated the police officer used force by drawing his service weapon to affect the arrest....
- The French fought with firearms, while traditional Iroquois weapons were bows and arrows, stone tomahawks, and wooden warclubs.
- I think about my teepee, my tomahawk, my stocky bay horse who is standing even now, a striped blanket thrown over his back, ready to gallop me over the plains, into the red and dusty West.
1.1Australian /NZ A hatchet.A week later, a larger party of some 200 Maori appeared, this time with spears slung over their backs, and muskets and tomahawks....
- The injuries were of a type consistent with being inflicted by a hatchet or tomahawk.
- I threw them aside and got possession of a tomahawk from one of them.
verb [with object]
Strike or cut with or as if with a tomahawk: I took a hammer from the drawer and tomahawked their dolls...
- But I suppose it was her last chance and the old man would have tomahawked me if I hadn't taken her.
- Later, a coroner found that he had been tomahawked several times, causing instant death.
Origin
Early 17th century: from a Virginia Algonquian language.