Awl"wort` (l"wûrt`), n. [Awl + wort.] (Bot.) A plant (Subularia aquatica), with awl-shaped leaves.
Awm (m), n. See Aam.
Awn (n), n. [OE. awn, agune, from Icel. ögn, pl. agnir; akin to Sw. agn, Dan. avne, Goth. ahana, OHG. agana, G. agen, ahne, chaff, Gr. 'a`chnh, AS. egla; prob. from same root as E. acute. See 3d Ear.] 1. (Bot.) The bristle or beard of barley, oats, grasses, etc., or any similar bristlelike appendage; arista. Gray.
Awned (nd), a. (Bot.) Furnished with an awn, or long bristle-shaped tip; bearded. Gray.
Awn"ing (&?;), n. [Origin uncertain: cf. F. auvent awing, or Pers. wan, wang, anything suspended, or LG. havening a place sheltered from wind and weather, E. haven.] 1. A rooflike cover, usually of canvas, extended over or before any place as a shelter from the sun, rain, or wind.
2. (Naut.) That part of the poop deck which is continued forward beyond the bulkhead of the cabin.
Awn"inged (&?;), a. Furnished with an awning.
Awn"less, a. Without awns or beard.
Awn"y (&?;), a. Having awns; bearded.
A*work" (&?;), adv. [Pref. a- + work.] At work; in action. "Set awork." Shak.
A*work"ing, adv. [Pref. a- + working.] At work; in action. [Archaic or Colloq.] Spenser.
{ A*wreak", A*wreke", } (&?;), v. t. & i. To avenge. [Obs.] See Wreak.
A*wrong" (&?;), adv. [Pref. a- + wrong.] Wrongly. Ford.
A*wry" (&?;), adv. & a. [Pref. a- + wry.] 1. Turned or twisted toward one side; not in a straight or true direction, or position; out of the right course; distorted; obliquely; asquint; with oblique vision; as, to glance awry. "Your crown's awry." Shak.
Blows them transverse, ten thousand leagues awry.
Into the devious air.
Milton.
2. Aside from the line of truth, or right reason; unreasonable or unreasonably; perverse or perversely.
Or by her charms
Draws him awry, enslaved.
Milton.
Nothing more awry from the law of God and nature than that a woman should give laws to men.
Milton.
Aw"some (&?;), a. Same as Awesome.
{ Ax, Axe, } (&?;), n. [OE. ax, axe, AS. eax, æx, acas; akin to D. akse, OS. accus, OHG. acchus, G. axt, Icel. öx, öxi, Sw. yxe, Dan. ökse, Goth. aqizi, Gr. &?;, L. ascia; not akin to E. acute.] A tool or instrument of steel, or of iron with a steel edge or blade, for felling trees, chopping and splitting wood, hewing timber, etc. It is wielded by a wooden helve or handle, so fixed in a socket or eye as to be in the same plane with the blade. The broadax, or carpenter's ax, is an ax for hewing timber, made heavier than the chopping ax, and with a broader and thinner blade and a shorter handle.
The ancient battle-ax had sometimes a double edge.
The word is used adjectively or in combination; as, axhead or ax head; ax helve; ax handle; ax shaft; ax-shaped; axlike.
This word was originally spelt with e, axe; and so also was nearly every corresponding word of one syllable: as, flaxe, taxe, waxe, sixe, mixe, pixe, oxe, fluxe, etc. This superfluous e is not dropped; so that, in more than a hundred words ending in x, no one thinks of retaining the e except in axe. Analogy requires its exclusion here.
"The spelling ax is better on every ground, of etymology, phonology, and analogy, than axe, which has of late become prevalent." New English Dict. (Murray).
Ax (&?;), v. t. & i. [OE. axien and asken. See Ask.] To ask; to inquire or inquire of.
This word is from Saxon, and is as old as the English language. Formerly it was in good use, but now is regarded as a vulgarism. It is still dialectic in England, and is sometimes heard among the uneducated in the United States. "And Pilate axide him, Art thou king of Jewis?" "Or if he axea fish." Wyclif. 'bdThe king axed after your Grace's welfare." Pegge.