How to Use pickax in a Sentence

pickax

noun
  • Hurst told The Post that Lopez killed the man with a pickax.
    Timothy Bella, Washington Post, 12 May 2022
  • The family trudged up the hill to the tap-tap of a pickax digging out the grave where Mushtaq would be buried.
    Los Angeles Times, 27 Aug. 2021
  • The burglar then ran toward a park behind the home, dropping his pickax in the process.
    Li Cohen, CBS News, 29 Sep. 2019
  • But Nicholas' uncle missed the funeral and, instead, got a pickax and broke the stone's hold on the ground in time for the interment.
    cincinnati.com, 5 Dec. 2019
  • At one point, Joe slings it over his shoulder, like the Seven Dwarfs toting their pickaxes on the way back from the mine.
    Dexter Filkins, The New Yorker, 30 Mar. 2018
  • The two characters are working in the caves with pickaxes.
    Abbey Maxbauer, refinery29.com, 25 June 2019
  • The only problem: Coal miners no longer swing a pickax or wield a shovel.
    Tim Loh, chicagotribune.com, 4 July 2017
  • The charges include allegations that a pickax and a knife were used as deadly weapons.
    Brittny Mejia, latimes.com, 13 Mar. 2018
  • Need a bigger grip on your mower, weed eater, shovel, or pickax?
    Southern Living, 1 May 2017
  • The men used shovels and pickaxes to dig down through the debris, coughing as their eyes watered and their bodies shrouded in clouds of ash.
    NBC News, 7 June 2018
  • One protester repeatedly swung a pickax at the base of the statue.
    CBS News, 16 June 2020
  • Late last month, hours after a man destroyed the star with a pickax, a fierce brawl ensued, leaving one person kicked in the head and another bleeding from the face.
    Samantha Schmidt, The Seattle Times, 7 Aug. 2018
  • Harden is taking a pickax to every traditional idea about how the game should be played.
    Ben Cohen, WSJ, 9 Jan. 2019
  • Otis used a sledgehammer and pickax to deface the star about a week before Trump was elected president.
    Orange County Register, 22 Feb. 2017
  • The victim told officers that Stigall had broken into the home with a pickax, then took the victim to an ATM and demanded cash.
    Cliff Pinckard, cleveland, 19 Nov. 2021
  • Activists in green overalls used a pickax to dig holes in the road near the farmhouse, while others carried steel girders and concrete to block vehicles.
    Loveday Morris, Washington Post, 11 Jan. 2023
  • Often there would be forty kids running around the area—washing pottery, sifting buckets, and pounding the earth with hoes and pickaxes.
    Rachel Poser, Harper's magazine, 19 Aug. 2019
  • Using a pickax and their hands to shift through rubble, the explorers—who didn’t set out in search of denim specifically—pull pair after pair of jeans from the dirt.
    Erika Mailman, Smithsonian Magazine, 26 Oct. 2022
  • The site has been backfilled with tons of earth, mosaics have been removed for conservation, trowels and pickaxes and shade tents have been packed away, and the students and staff have moved on.
    National Geographic, 5 July 2016
  • The site has been backfilled with tons of earth, mosaics have been removed for conservation, trowels and pickaxes and shade tents have been packed away, and the students and staff have moved on.
    National Geographic, 5 July 2016
  • Still, there is a feeling around the league that Hammon could be closer than ever from taking a pickax to another glass ceiling.
    Jeff McDonald, San Antonio Express-News, 14 June 2021
  • Investigators believe Wright first broke into a nearby home on Pearl Street and stole two vests and a pickax.
    Justin L. MacK, Indianapolis Star, 20 Sep. 2017
  • Hearing their cries as the cloud of dust dispersed, neighbors and nearby workers rushed in with pickaxes, shovels and ladders and rescued them all from the rubble.
    Washington Post, 19 Oct. 2017
  • The Wall was actually breached by exultant Berliners who chipped away at the wall with pickaxes, demolishing parts of it in the process.
    Alison Medley, Houston Chronicle, 7 Nov. 2019
  • That weekend, more than two million Berliners streamed across the border, some scaling the wall or smashing it with sledgehammers and pickaxes.
    Amy Crawford, Smithsonian, 25 Oct. 2019
  • On a recent muggy afternoon in southern India, Earappa Bawge hacked at the ground with a pickax, his white shirt pasted to his back.
    Washington Post, 23 Sep. 2020
  • Trump supporters had gathered around his new Walk of Fame star Thursday night to honor the president after his old star got taken out by a man with a pickax.
    Chris Perez, Fox News, 27 July 2018
  • For those who were able to log in and tune in, including some YouTubers, the video game brought elements of Star Wars into its fantasy world of pickaxes and survival of the fittest shooting.
    Shannon Liao, CNN, 14 Dec. 2019
  • West Virginia is so strongly associated with coal that the state flag features a miner with pickax over his shoulder.
    Daniel Flatley, Bloomberg.com, 20 July 2017
  • In 2016, Otis — heir to the Otis elevator company — also used a pickax (and sledgehammer) to destroy the star, all while dressed as a construction worker.
    Jameelah Nasheed, Teen Vogue, 26 July 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pickax.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: