- adz
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/adz/, n.1. an axlike tool, for dressing timbers roughly, with a curved, chisellike steel head mounted at a right angle to the wooden handle.v.t.2. to dress or shape (wood) with an adz.Also, adze.[bef. 900; ME ad(e)se, OE adesa; *ad-es-, of obscure orig., appears to be formed like AX, and might by assoc. with the latter have lost *w-; if so, < Gmc *wad-, c. Lith vedegà adz]
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▪ toolalso spelled adzehand tool for shaping wood. One of the earliest tools, it was widely distributed in Stone Age cultures in the form of a handheld stone chipped to form a blade. By Egyptian times it had acquired a wooden haft, or handle, with a copper or bronze blade set flat at the top of the haft to form a T. In this form the adz continued to be the prime hand tool for shaping and trimming wood. A log or other piece of timber was laid on the ground or floor, and the carpenter stood astride or on it, swinging the adz in a picklike action down and toward himself.* * *
Universalium. 2010.