crowbill

See also: crow-bill

English

WOTD – 17 February 2024

Etymology

An 18th-century illustration of surgical instruments, with a crowbill (sense 1) shown in the bottom right corner as figure 5.

A bec de corbin or crowbill (sense 2), a type of poleaxe.

From crow (“bird of the genus Corvus”) +‎ bill (“beak of a bird”). Sense 1 (“kind of forceps”) is probably from its appearance, while sense 2 (“type of poleaxe”) is a calque of French bec de corbin (literally “crow or raven's beak”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹəʊbɪl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹoʊˌbɪl/
• Hyphenation: crow‧bill

Noun

crowbill (plural crowbills)

2. (surgery) A kind of forceps for extracting bullets, etc., from wounds.

   Synonym: crow's bill

4. (weaponry, historical) Synonym of bec de corbin (“poleaxe with a modified hammerhead and a spike mounted on the top of the pole”)

Alternative forms

• crow-bill

Hypernyms

• (surgery): forceps
• (weaponry): poleaxe

Related terms

• billhook
• crowbar

Translations

kind of forceps for extracting bullets, etc., from wounds

• Finnish: kärkipihdit (fi) pl
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can

synonym of bec de corbin — see bec de corbin

Further reading

• bec de corbin on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “crow-bill, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
• “crow-bill, n.”, in Collins English Dictionary.