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Entry 3 senses · 2 variants Webster, 1913

Poleax

· Pole·ax · IPA
01 n. Anciently, a kind of battle-ax with a long handle; later, an ax or hatchet with a short handle, and a head variously patterned; -- used by …
  1. 1.
    Anciently, a kind of battle-ax with a long handle; later, an ax or hatchet with a short handle, and a head variously patterned; -- used by soldiers, and also by sailors in boarding a vessel.
02 v. t. To fell with or as if with a poleax; -- often used figuratively; as, the entire department was poleaxed after the takeover.
  1. 1.
    To fell with or as if with a poleax; -- often used figuratively; as, the entire department was poleaxed after the takeover.
  2. 2.
    Stunned; astonished;; as, we couldn't speak, poleaxed by the sight in fronnt fo us.