twibill

• twibil, trybill, twilbil, twybil, twyvil

From Middle English twibill, from Old English twibill, from twi- (“double”) + bill (“edge, blade”), see also billhook.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtwaɪbɪl/, /ˈtwaɪbəl/
• (etymological) IPA^(key): /ˈtwɪbɪl/, /ˈtwɪbəl/

twibill (plural twibills)

1. (carpentry) A two-edged tool used in gate-type hurdle-making for cutting out mortises, with a flat chisel and a mortise chisel or hook, similar to the much larger French carpenter's tool, the besaiguë (or bisaiguë).
2. (dialectal, Britain) A mattock with one blade like an axe and the other like an adze.
3. (dialectal, England) A reaping hook, especially for cutting beans and peas.
4. (obsolete) A double-bladed halberd or battle-axe.
   • 1866, Charles Kingsley, chapter 19, in Hereward the Wake, London: Nelson, page 258:

     [A] little fair-haired man, as broad as he was tall, who heaved up a long “twybill,” or double axe.

• twybil on Wikipedia.Wikipedia