break-axe

plural break-axes

1. countableuncountableA South American hardwood, Sloanea jamaicensis

   The quiebra hacha is the celerated break-axe tree, noted for its durability.

   1853, James Dunwoody Brownson De Bow, R. G. Barnwell, Edwin Bell, Debow's Review - Volume 14, page 100

   2 more examples

   For strength and hardness, for towering height and size, the break-axe may be called the king of the Cuba forest.

   1832, The Juvenile Miscellany, page 207

   Quebracho wood derives its name from two Spanish words, "quebrar" to break and "hache" an axe, and this break-axe wood is one of the heaviest and hardest known, weighing some 85 pounds to the cubic foot, or over l/3 more than water, and "playing ducks and drakes" with axes, saws and other cutting tools.

   1948, Joseph Earle Stevens, A Tale of two trees: Logwood & Quebracho, page 41