Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Tool?

\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.
\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.
\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.]