Helve
Pronunciation
- IPA: /hɛlv/
- Rhymes: -ɛlv
Origin
From Old English helfe.
Full definition of helve
Noun
helve
(plural helves)- The handle or haft of a tool or weapon.
- 1917, Robert Frost, The Ax-helve:It was the bad ax-helve someone had sold me—
“Made on machine,†he said, plowing the grain .... - 1974, Guy Davenport, Tatlin!:The eyelet in the rose pilleum of his glans welled a clear bead that silled under the corona, wound the veinclomb helve, and ran a snailtrack down the thrum and ridge of the underduct.
- 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 847:Happily they were only sketchily armed, the group-leaders carried pistols and pick-helves.
- A forge hammer lifted by a cam acting on the helve between the fulcrum and the head.
Verb
- (transitive) To furnish (an axe, etc.) with a helve.----