1. [n]  the means whereby some act is accomplished; "my greed was the instrument of my destruction"; "science has given us new tools to fight disease"
2. [n]  an implement used in the practice of a vocation
3. [n]  obscene terms for penis
4. [n]  a person who is used to perform unpleasant or dishonest tasks for someone else
5. [v]  work with a tool
6. [v]  ride in a car with no particular goal and just for the pleasure of it
7. [v]  informal: drive (a vehicle); "The convertible tooled down the street"
8. [v]  furnish with tools

1. \Tool\ (t[=oo]l), v. i. [Cf. {Tool}, v. t., 2.]
   To travel in a vehicle; to ride or drive. [Colloq.]
         Boys on their bicycles tooling along the well-kept
         roads.                                   --Illust.
                                                  American.
   

2. \Tool\, n. [OE. tol,tool. AS. t[=o]l; akin to Icel. t[=o]l,
   Goth. taijan to do, to make, taui deed, work, and perhaps to
   E. taw to dress leather. [root]64.]
   1. An instrument such as a hammer, saw, plane, file, and the
      like, used in the manual arts, to facilitate mechanical
      operations; any instrument used by a craftsman or laborer
      at his work; an implement; as, the tools of a joiner,
      smith, shoe-maker, etc.; also, a cutter, chisel, or other
      part of an instrument or machine that dresses work.
   2. A machine for cutting or shaping materials; -- also called
      {machine tool}.
   3. Hence, any instrument of use or service.
            That angry fool . . . Whipping her horse, did with
            his smarting tool Oft whip her dainty self.
                                                  --Spenser.
   4. A weapon. [Obs.]
            Him that is aghast of every tool.     --Chaucer.
   5. A person used as an instrument by another person; -- a
      word of reproach; as, men of intrigue have their tools, by
      whose agency they accomplish their purposes.
            I was not made for a minion or a tool. --Burks.
   

3. \Tool\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {tooled}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {tooling}.]
   1. To shape, form, or finish with a tool. ``Elaborately
      tooled.'' --Ld. Lytton.
   2. To drive, as a coach. [Slang, Eng.]
   

1. A program used primarily to create, manipulate, modify, or analyse other programs, such as a compiler or an editor or a cross-referencing program. Opposite: app, operating system.

2. A Unix application program with a simple, "transparent" (typically text-stream) interface designed specifically to be used in programmed combination with other tools (see filter, plumbing).

3. (MIT: general to students there) To work; to study (connotes tedium). The TMRC Dictionary defined this as "to set one's brain to the grindstone". See hack.

4. (MIT) A student who studies too much and hacks too little. MIT's student humour magazine rejoices in the name "Tool and Die".

[Jargon File]