Axe vs Shaft - What's the difference?
axe | shaft |
A tool for felling trees or chopping wood etc. consisting of a heavy head flattened to a blade on one side, and a handle attached to it.
An ancient weapon consisting of a head that has one or two blades and a long handle.
(informal) A dismissal or rejection.
* 1975 , (Bob Dylan), (Tangled Up in Blue)
(slang, music) A gigging musician's particular instrument, especially a guitar in rock music or a saxophone in jazz.
(finance) A directional position or interest, by a dealer in a financial market – if one wishes to unload stock, one is “axed to sell” or “has an axe”.
To fell or chop with an axe.
To terminate or reduce tremendously in a rough or ruthless manner.
To lay off: to terminate a person's employment
To furnish with an axle.
(obsolete, or, dialectal)
* 1395 , John Wycliffe, trans. Bible , 1 Corinthis 14:35:
* 1526 , William Tyndale, trans. Bible , Luke IIi:
(lb) The entire body of a long weapon, such as an arrow.
* , (Geoffrey Chaucer):
* , (Roger Ascham):
The long, narrow, central body of a spear, arrow, or javelin.
*
(lb) Anything cast or thrown as a spear or javelin.
* , (John Milton):
* , (Vicesimus Knox):
Any long thin object, such as the handle of a tool, one of the poles between which an animal is harnessed to a vehicle, the driveshaft of a motorized vehicle with rear-wheel drive, an axle, etc.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, title= A beam or ray of light.
* 1912 , (Willa Cather), :
The main axis of a feather.
(lb) The long narrow body of a lacrosse stick.
A long, narrow passage sunk into the earth, either natural or for artificial.
A vertical passage housing a lift or elevator; a liftshaft.
A ventilation or heating conduit; an air duct.
(lb) Any column or pillar, particularly the body of a column between its capital and pediment.
* , (Ralph Waldo Emerson):
The main cylindrical part of the penis.
The chamber of a blast furnace.
(slang) To fuck over; to cause harm to, especially through deceit or treachery.
to equip with a shaft.
(slang) To fuck; to have sexual intercourse with.
In transitive terms the difference between axe and shaft
is that axe is to lay off: to terminate a person's employment while shaft is to equip with a shaft.axe
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl), from (etyl) , and also (etyl) (m).Alternative forms
* ax (largely US)Noun
(en noun)- His girlfriend/boss/schoolmaster gave him the axe .
- I had a job in the great North Woods
- Workin' as a cook for a spell.
- But I never did like it all that much
- And one day the axe just fell.
Shedding the correlation ‘axe’, Risk magazine Derived from “have an axe to grind”, which is also used.
Usage notes
In the United States, this spelling is often used to distinguish the weapon from the tool, though some simply don't use the "ax" spelling at all, and only use "axe".Synonyms
* chop, pink slip, sack, bootDerived terms
* have an axe to grind * battle axe * axemanSee also
* adze * hatchet * twibillVerb
(ax)- The government announced its plans to axe public spending.
- The broadcaster axed the series because far less people than expected watched it.
- He got axed in the last round of firings.
Synonyms
* (lay off) fire, lay off, downsizeEtymology 2
Alternative forms
* (US)Verb
(ax)Etymology 3
Verb
(ax)- But if thei wolen ony thing lerne, at home axe thei her hosebondis; for it is foule thing to a womman to speke in chirche.
- And the people axed hym, sayinge: What shall we do then.
shaft
English
Noun
(en noun)- His sleep, his meat, his drink, is him bereft, /
- A shaft hath three principal parts, the stele, the feathers, and the head.
- Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out.. Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft .
- And the thunder, / Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage, / Perhaps
- Some kinds of literary pursuitshave been attacked with all the shafts of ridicule.
Lee S. Langston, magazine=(American Scientist)
The Adaptable Gas Turbine, passage=Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo'', meaning ''vortex , and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.}}
- They were a fine company of old women, and a Dutch painter would have loved to find them there together, where the sun made bright patches on the floor and sent long, quivering shafts of gold through the dusky shade up among the rafters.
- Bid time and nature gently spare /
Usage notes
In Early Modern English, the shaft referred to the entire body of a long weapon, such that an arrow's "shaft" was composed of its "tip", "stale" or "steal", and "fletching". empenne as "I [[feather, fether a shafte, I put fethers upon a steale". Over time, the word came to be used in place of the former "stale" and lost its original meaning.Synonyms
* stale, stail, steal, stele, steel (arrows, spears ) * mineshaft (vertical underground passage )Verb
(en verb)- Your boss really shafted you by stealing your idea like that.
- Turns out my roommate was shafting my girlfriend.