verb. (Australian).—To bungle the shears in fleecing sheep.
1859. H. KINGSLEY, Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn, 147. Shearers were very scarce, and the poor sheep got fearfully TOMAHAWKED by the new hands.
1872. C. H. EDEN, My Wife and I in Queensland, 96. Some men never get the better of this habit, but ‘TOMAHAWK’ as badly after years of practice as when they first began.
1896. A. B. PATERSON, The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, ‘Those Names,’ 162.
| The ‘ringer’ that shore a hundred, as they never were shorn before, | |
| And the novice who, toiling bravely, had TOMMY-HAWKED half a score. |
TO BURY (or DIG UP) THE TOMAHAWK, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To make peace (or go to war); to settle a difference (or to dispute): it was the custom of the North American Indians to BURY THE TOMAHAWK during time of peace: see HATCHET.
