Meanings
plural helves
- The handle or haft of a tool or weapon.
Happily they were only sketchily armed, the group-leaders carried pistols and pick-helves.
1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 8471 more example
It was the bad ax-helve someone had sold me— / “Made on machine,” he said, plowing the grain […]
1917, Robert Frost, "The Ax-helve"
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Germanic*halbiją
- Old Englishhielfe
- Middle Englishhelfe
- Englishhelve
From Middle English helfe, helve; from Old English hielfe, from Proto-Germanic *halbiją. Probably cognate to English half, although Etymonline claims relation from halter and helm.
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-Germanic
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian дръжка
- дръжка (drăžka)The handle or haft of a tool or weapon
Finnish kahva, varsi
- kahvaThe handle or haft of a tool or weapon
- varsiThe handle or haft of a tool or weapon
- tukkiThe handle or haft of a tool or weapon
- varttaato furnish with a helve
Polish trzonek, wyposażać w trzonek
- trzonekThe handle or haft of a tool or weapon
- wyposażać w trzonekto furnish with a helve
- wyposażyć w trzonekto furnish with a helve
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with helve
All rhymes →Cite this entry
helve. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/helve
“helve.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/helve. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “helve,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/helve.
Source: helve on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.