prun·ing hook

(pro͞o′nĭng)

A long pole with a curved saw blade and usually a clipping mechanism on one end, used especially for pruning small trees.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

pruning hook

(Tools) a tool with a curved steel blade terminating in a hook, used for pruning

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

prun′ing hook`

an implement with a hooked blade, used for pruning vines, branches, etc.

[1605–15]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

pruning hook - a long-handled pruning saw with a curved blade at the end and sometimes a clipper; used to prune small trees

lopper, pruner

pruning saw - a handsaw used for pruning trees

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References in periodicals archive

Her right hand is holding a pruning hook and resting on a plowshare.

THE CONVERSATION

Sent to Lord Norfolk, who planned to marry Mary and then claim her as Elizabeth's successor, the centrepiece of the hanging is a hand and pruning hook.

QUEEN WEAVED SECRETS INTO HER TANGLED WEB

He held on to a stump of a branch with his left hand; with his right he swung his pruning hook at my head.

Leleja Mountain (excerpts)

Injustice wears a judge's or ruler's cap backward and carries a "nasty pruning hook".

The Faces of Injustice

Pruning hook, owned by George McCollum, Lockport, N.Y.

Wanted: gadgets, gizmos and contraptions

Recent IRS auctions of tax resisters' homes offer no clear picture for the future, said Karen Marysdaughter, one of the "Pruning Hook" supporters and a staff person for the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.

War tax protest threatens family farm

The war epitomized Joel 3:10: 'Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears: Let the weak say, 'I am strong.''

Armistice

However even in their fight against social inequalities Christians shall be guided by Christ who said, "love those who hate you," "pray for those who persecute you" and "you shall not curse your brother." Christians are to work for a kingdom where its citizens "shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks" (Isaiah 2:4).

Casting Seeds Of Hate

Until we learn to beat "our swords into plowshares, and our spears into pruning hooks" (Isaiah 2:4), many people will continue to go through life thinking that death IS their future.

When death is your future

And so we must rise up and beat our swords into plowshares, and our spears into pruning hooks and nations must not rise up against nations, neither must they study war anymore.

The Long Journey toward Peace & Justice

In the words of the prophet Isaiah, let us finally beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks, so that nations will no longer raise the sword against one another nor train for war again.

In world awash with weapons, there's a better way

Isaiah tells us in the Bible that the Lord will judge and rebuke nations and people; "and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks," which, Isaiah prophesies, will bring about the end of war.

Retired from battle Sherman tank tackles farming