hew

CEFRC2

/hjuː/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To cut or shape something, especially wood or stone.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    To act according to, to conform to; usually construed with to.

Examples

  • The lumberjack used a sharp axe to hew the log.

  • They had to hew to the rules.

At a glance

Sits at C2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5

Also pronounced

  • /xjuː/

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. To shape; to form.

  2. To chop away at; to whittle down; to mow down.

noun

Extra meaning

  1. Destruction by cutting down or hewing.

More examples

In context

  • The carpenter will hew the wood.

  • Few men measured up to his standard of righteousness; he hewed to the line.

  • to hew out a sepulchre

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The lumberjack started to blank the tree with his axe.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

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”).