[f. BILL sb.1 + HOOK sb.] A heavy thick knife or chopper with a hooked end, used for pruning, cutting brushwood, etc.
1611. Cotgr., Rivereau … a Welsh hooke, or hedging bill made with a hooke at the end … we call it a Bill-hooke.
1837. Howitt, Rur. Life, VI. xviii. (1862), 608. The billhook of the Midland counties, with a back edge as well as a front one.
1857. S. Osborn, Quedah, ix. 118. Each man carried a sharp bill hook, with which to cut his way through the underwood.
