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mattock

 
Dictionary: mat·tock   (măt'ək) pronunciation
mattock
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mattock
(© School Division, Houghton Mifflin Company)
n.
A digging tool with a flat blade set at right angles to the handle.

[Middle English, from Old English mattuc, perhaps from Vulgar Latin *matteūca, club, akin to *mattea. See mace1.]


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Picklike digging implement, one of the oldest tools of agriculture. It resembles the modern hoe but with a stone or wooden blade rather than a metal one, set at right angles to a long wooden handle. Though large-scale agriculture uses plows, harrows, and rotary hoes that open many rows of a field simultaneously, home gardeners and horticulturists may still use mattocks to loosen dirt and to chop weeds.

For more information on mattock, visit Britannica.com.

Architecture: mattock
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A tool for loosening soil in digging; shaped like a pickax, but having one of its ends broad instead of pointed.



[Ar]

A digging tool comprising a flat blade set transversely to a wooden handle. The oldest examples are Mesolithic in date and were presumably used for digging holes and grubbing up edible roots and tubers. Later examples were extensively used for breaking up ground for agriculture. Also called a hoe.

Wikipedia: Mattock
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A mattock

A mattock is a hand tool similar to a pickaxe. It is distinguished by the head, which makes it particularly suitable for digging or breaking up moderately hard ground. A mattock has a broad chisel-like blade perpendicular to the handle.[1] This broad-bladed end is effectively an adze that could be used as a hoe as well. The reverse may have a pointed end, in which case the tool is called a pick mattock, or instead have an axe-like splitting end, then it is a cutter mattock. A combination axe and mattock used for fighting forest fires is a pulaski. In some regions of the southern USA, the mattock is called a "grub hoe" or "grub axe".

Mattock heads range from 1.5 to 3.5 kg (3 to 7 pounds) in weight, and are normally mounted on a 90 to 120 cm (3 to 4 foot) shaft. The shaft is often heavier than the head, sometimes possessing twice the mass and density of a baseball bat.

Mattocks are still frequently used for path work in hill areas such as the Scottish Highlands, and are used extensively in archaeological excavation.

Two-handed pick mattocks are very common in Australia.

A mattock in use to dig out a burrowing pit.

During the Middle Ages of Europe, the mattock served as an improvised pole weapon for the poorer classes.

References

  1. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 2000



Translations: Mattock
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - ryddehakke

Nederlands (Dutch)
houweel

Français (French)
n. - pioche

Deutsch (German)
n. - Breithacke

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αξίνα, τσάπα

Italiano (Italian)
zappa

Português (Portuguese)
n. - picareta (f)

Русский (Russian)
мотыга, рыхлить землю мотыгой

Español (Spanish)
n. - azadón

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - (röj)hacka

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
鹤嘴锄

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 鶴嘴鋤

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 농기구의 일종

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 根掘り鍬

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) معول, فأس,‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מכוש, מעדר, חפרור‬


 
 
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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Architecture. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Archaeology Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Copyright © 2002, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mattock" Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

 

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