A large axe used by woodmen. The “Brade ax” is mentioned as a weapon (1352) and as a carpenter’s axe (ab. 1400) the “brodax”: N.E.D.
1779. A scar cut with the corner of a broad-axe.—Runaway advt., Maryland Journal, June 22.
1781. Just imported … falling and broad axes, &c.—Advt., Royal Georgia Gazette, March 8.
1790. It seems to me that his throat is lined with bell-metal, and his tongue steeled like a broad-axe.—Gazette of the U.S. (N.Y.), Jan. 16.
1799. A stroke received from one of the rioters with an unlifted [uplifted] broad axe.—The Aurora (Phila.), March 19.
1812. [She] had from the window observed the negro sharpening the broad axe upon the grindstone.—Mass. Spy, Dec. 12.
1830. He went out to get the broad axe which lay in the yard.—Id., Aug. 4.
1836. A chap just about as rough hewn as if he had been cut out of a gum log with a broad axe, and sent into the market without even being smoothed off with a jack plane.—‘Col. Crockett in Texas,’ pp. 81–2 (Phila.).
1842. Mr. Arnold of Tennessee said his father “would as lief have been called a mad dog as called a Federalist. At the very sound of the word, he laid his hand on his broad axe.”—House of Representatives, Jan. 27: Congressional Globe, p. 184.
1842. If I haint larnt him everything and a good deal more, may I be swingled treed with a broad axe.—Phila. Spirit of the Times, March 24.
1857. He … threatened to hew down with his broad axe any who dared to preach such nonsense in his presence.—George A. Smith, at the Bowery, Salt Lake City, Aug. 2: ‘Journal of Discourses,’ v. 103.
