helve

Etymology

From Middle English helfe, helve; from Old English helfe.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hɛlv/
• Rhymes: -ɛlv

Noun

helve (plural helves)

1. The handle or haft of a tool or weapon.
   • 1917, Robert Frost, The Ax-helve:

     It was the bad ax-helve someone had sold me— / “Made on machine,” he said, plowing the grain […]

   • 1974, Guy Davenport, Tatlin!:

     The eyelet in the rose pilleum of his glans welled a clear bead that silled under the corona, wound the veinclomb helve, and ran a snailtrack down the thrum and ridge of the underduct.

   • 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 847:

     Happily they were only sketchily armed, the group-leaders carried pistols and pick-helves.

2. A forge hammer lifted by a cam acting on the helve between the fulcrum and the head.

Verb

helve (third-person singular simple present helves, present participle helving, simple past and past participle helved)

1. (transitive) To furnish (an axe, etc.) with a helve.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈhe̞lʋe̞ˣ]
• Hyphenation: hel‧ve
• Rhymes: -elʋe

Noun

helve

1. (botany) A lodicule.

Adjective

helve

1. vocative masculine singular of helvus