noun
machete
muh-SHET-ee/məˈʃeti/
A broad, heavy knife used mainly for cutting vegetation.
The machete lies beside severed cane stems, its broad blade fully exposed.
Etymology
Spanish machete denoted a chopping knife used as both a tool and a weapon in the Americas. It was probably a diminutive of macho, “sledgehammer,” whose deeper ancestry has competing explanations.
In context
And then they had a big knife, a kind of a machete looking knife. It had a hook on the end of it and they'd bend over and they would hook the sugar bead
More examples
- He sharpens his machete before cutting the sugarcane.
- The workers use machetes to cut through thick brush.
- Keep the machete in its sheath when you carry it.
Forms
machete · machetes
Similar words
- billhook
- Has a hooked blade for pruning and cutting woody brush.
- cleaver
- A broad kitchen knife used mainly for chopping meat.