Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Ax
Ax
(ăks)
, Verb.
T.
& I.
To ask; to inquire or inquire of.
☞ This word is from Saxon, and is as old as the English language. Formerly it was in good use, but now is regarded as a vulgarism. It is still dialectic in England, and is sometimes heard among the uneducated in the United States. “And Pilate axide him, Art thou king of Jewis?” “Or if he axea fish.”
Wyclif.
’bdThe king axed after your Grace's welfare.” Pegge.
Webster 1828 Edition
Ax
AX
,Noun.
An instrument usually of iron, for hewing timber and chopping wood. It consists of a head with an arching edge, and a helve or handle. The ax is of two kinds, the broad ax for hewing, and the narrow ax for rough-hewing and cutting. The hatchet is a small ax to be used with one hand.
Definition 2024
Ax
ax
ax
English
Noun
ax (plural axes)
Verb
ax (third-person singular simple present axes, present participle axing, simple past and past participle axed)
- Alternative spelling of axe
Etymology 2
From Old English acsian, showing metathesis from ascian. The regular literary form until circa 1600.
Verb
ax (third-person singular simple present axes, present participle axing, simple past and past participle axed)
- (now dialectal or nonstandard, African American Vernacular) Alternative form of ask
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts I:
- When they were come togedder, they axed off hym, sayinge: Master wilt thou at this tyme restore agayne the kyngdom of israhel?
- 1979, Verna Mae Slone, What My Heart Wants to Tell, Kentucky 1988, p. 18:
- ‘I axed him if he knowed the way and he said he had not fergitten the lay of the land.’
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts I:
Icelandic
Etymology
From Old Norse ax, from Proto-Germanic *ahsą.
Pronunciation
Noun
ax n (genitive singular ax, nominative plural öx)
- ear (of corn)
Declension
declension of ax