\Ax\, Axe \Axe\,, n. [OE. ax, axe, AS. eax, [ae]x, acas; akin
to D. akse, OS. accus, OHG. acchus, G. axt, Icel. ["o]x,
["o]xi, Sw. yxe, Dan. ["o]kse, Goth. aqizi, Gr. ?, L. ascia;
not akin to E. acute.]
A tool or instrument of steel, or of iron with a steel edge
or blade, for felling trees, chopping and splitting wood,
hewing timber, etc. It is wielded by a wooden helve or
handle, so fixed in a socket or eye as to be in the same
plane with the blade. The broadax, or carpenter's ax, is an
ax for hewing timber, made heavier than the chopping ax, and
with a broader and thinner blade and a shorter handle.
Note: The ancient battle-ax had sometimes a double edge.
Note: The word is used adjectively or in combination; as,
      axhead or ax head; ax helve; ax handle; ax shaft;
      ax-shaped; axlike.
Note: This word was originally spelt with e, axe; and so also
      was nearly every corresponding word of one syllable:
      as, flaxe, taxe, waxe, sixe, mixe, pixe, oxe, fluxe,
      etc. This superfluous e is not dropped; so that, in
      more than a hundred words ending in x, no one thinks of
      retaining the e except in axe. Analogy requires its
      exclusion here.
Note: ``The spelling ax is better on every ground, of
      etymology, phonology, and analogy, than axe, which has
      of late become prevalent.'' --New English Dict.
      (Murray).

\Ax\, v. t. & i. [OE. axien and asken. See {Ask}.]
To ask; to inquire or inquire of.
Note: This word is from Saxon, and is as old as the English
      language. Formerly it was in good use, but now is
      regarded as a vulgarism. It is still dialectic in
      England, and is sometimes heard among the uneducated in
      the United States. ``And Pilate axide him, Art thou
      king of Jewis?'' ``Or if he axea fish.'' --Wyclif.
      'bdThe king axed after your Grace's welfare.'' --Pegge.