tomahawk

From an Algonquian (most likely Powhatan) word. Compare Malecite-Passamaquoddy tomhikon (“ax”), Abenaki temahigan, demahigan (“ax”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtɒ.mə.hɔːk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɑ.mə.hɔk/

tomahawk (plural tomahawks)

1. An ax/axe used by American Indian (First Nations) warriors.
   • 1615, Ralph Hamor, A True Discourse of the Present State of Virginia (published in Richmond in 1957), page 13:

     yeerely bring into our store house, at the beginning of their haruest two bushels of corne a man [...] for which they should receiue so many Iron Tomahawkes or small hatchets.

2. (basketball) A dunk in which the person dunking the ball does so with his arm behind his head.
3. (geometry) A geometric construction consisting of a semicircle and two line segments that serves as a tool for trisecting an angle; so called from its resemblance to the American Indian axe.
4. (field hockey) A field hockey shot style that involves a player turning their hockey stick upside-down and swinging it so that its inside edge will come into contact with the ball.

tomahawk (third-person singular simple present tomahawks, present participle tomahawking, simple past and past participle tomahawked)

1. To strike with a tomahawk.
   • 1906, FE Smith, maiden speech to House of Commons, 12 Mar 1906:

     Not satisfied with tomahawking our colleagues in the country, they ask the scanty remnant in the House to join in the scalp dance.

• tomahawker
• tomahawking

• IPA^(key): /tɔ.ma.ok/

tomahawk m (plural tomahawks)

1. tomahawk

• “tomahawk” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

tomahawk m (plural tomahawks)

1. tomahawk (type of American Indian axe)