verb. (old).—This archaic form of ask, once and long literary, survives in AX MY ARSE (see quot. 1785) and dialectically. [O.E.D.: AX, down to nearly 1600, was the regular literary form: it was supplanted in standard English by ask, originally the northern form]. Also AX-MY-EYE (cheap-jacks’) = a cute fellow, a knowing blade.
c. 1380. CHAUCER, The Tale of Melibeus. Saint James eck sayth; if any of you have nede of sapience, AXE it of God.
1461–73. Paston Letters, III. 46. To AXE in chyrche.
1474. CAXTON, Game of the Chesse, III. viii. He must nedes begge and AXE his breed.
1758. A. MURPHY, The Upholsterer, i. An old crazy fool—AXING your pardon, ma’am, for calling your father so.
1823. GROSE, Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue [EGAN], s.v. ASK, or AX MY A—SE. A common reply to any question; still deemed wit at sea, and formerly at court, under the denomination of selling bargains.
1763. FOOTE, The Mayor of Garratt, ii. 2. Mrs. Sneak. Where is the puppy! Sneak. Yes, yes, she is AXING for me.
1861. H. KINGSLEY, Ravenshoe, vi. ‘I AXED her would she like to live in the great house, and she said no.’
1876. C. HINDLEY, ed. The Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 232.
| Stow your gab and gauffery, | |
| To every fakement I’m a fly; | |
| I never takes no fluffery, | |
| For I’m a regular AXE-MY-EYE. |
PHRASES: TO HAVE AN AX TO GRIND = to have personal interests to serve; TO PUT THE AX IN THE HELVE = to solve a doubt, to unriddle a puzzle; TO SEND THE AX AFTER THE HELVE (or THE HELVE AFTER THE HATCHET) = to despair; TO HANG UP ONE’S AX = to desist from fruitless labour, to abandon a useless project; TO OPEN A DOOR WITH AN AX (said of barren or unprofitable labour).
c. 1450. Lonelich, Grail, xxvii. Ȝit Cowde he not PUTTEN THE EX IN Þe HELVE.
1547. HEYWOOD, Proverbs and Epigrams (1867), 80. Here I SENDE THAXE AFTER THE HELUE awaie.
1815. C. MINER, Who’ll Turn Grindstones? When I see a merchant over-polite to his customers … thinks I, that man has AN AXE TO GRIND.
1865. J. G. HOLLAND, Plain Talks on Familiar Subjects, v. 188. Little cliques and cabals, composed of men who have AXES TO GRIND.
1881. Daily Telegraph, 8 June, 6. 2. The hands that … ‘GRIND THE AXE,’ and that ‘pull the string.’
1888. Detroit Free Press, 22 Sept. William Black says the only AX a novelist has TO GRIND is the climax.
1898. BINSTEAD, A Pink ’Un and a Pelican, 3. These anecdotes and stories have no morals to point, no AXES TO GRIND.
