How do you use the word "hew" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "hew": The carpenter will hew the wood. They had to hew to the rules.

Hew Meaning

/hjuː/

Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

verbTo chop away at; to whittle down; to mow down.

verbTo shape; to form.

Sentence Examples

The carpenter will hew the wood.

They had to hew to the rules.

The lumberjack used a sharp axe to hew the log.

CEFR Practice Quiz

The lumberjack started to ____ the tree with his axe.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

The lumberjack used a heavy axe to ____ the large logs into smaller pieces of firewood.

Word Origin & History

From Middle English hewen, from Old English hēawan, from Proto-West Germanic *hauwan, from Proto-Germanic *hawwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *kewh₂- (“to strike, hew, forge”). Cognate to West Frisian houwe (“to hew”), Cimbrian hauan (“to dig”), Dutch houwen (“to hew”), German hauen (“to hew”), Luxembourgish haen (“to chop”), Danish hugge (“to hew”), Faroese høgga (“to hew”), Icelandic höggva (“to hew”), Norwegian Bokmål hogge, hugge (“to hew”), Norwegian Nynorsk hogga (“to hew”), Swedish hugga (“to hew”). Sense 3 derives from the phrase hew to the line (literally “cut evenly with an axe or saw”).

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"Hew them to pieces, hack their bones asunder[…]" — 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vii]:

"A favourite at the Old Bailey, and eke at the Sessions, Mr. Stryver had begun cautiously to hew away the lower staves of the ladder on which he mounted." — 1859, Charles Dickens, chapter V, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC:

"So that all men despised him in the streets, / He hewed the living rock, with sweat and tears," — 1892, Rudyard Kipling, “Evarra And His Gods”, in Barrack-Room Ballads and Other Verses, 3rd edition, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 163:

"My ways are hard and rough, and my arms are strong and tough, / And I hew the dizzy pine till darkness falls;" — 1912, Robert W[illiam] Service, “The Logger”, in Rhymes of a Rolling Stone, Toronto, Ont.: William Briggs, →OCLC:

"She flung back the fortnight on his hands as if he had been an idler indifferent to dates, instead of an active young diplomatist who, to respond to her call, had had to hew his way through a very jungle of engagements!" — 1912, Edith Wharton, The Reef, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company:

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