Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To make or shape with or as if with an ax.
  • intransitive verb To cut down with an ax; fell.
  • intransitive verb To strike or cut; cleave.
  • intransitive verb To cut something by repeated blows, as of an ax.
  • intransitive verb To adhere or conform strictly; hold.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To cut; especially, to cut with an ax, a hatchet, or a sword with a swinging blow; cut with a heavy blow or with repeated blows: as, to hew down a tree.
  • To form or shape by blows with a sharp instrument; cut roughly into form; shape out by cutting: often with out: as, to hew timber; to hew out a sepulcher from a rock.
  • To cut; inflict cutting blows.
  • noun An obsolete spelling of hue.
  • noun Destruction by cutting down.
  • noun An obsolete spelling of hue.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete Destruction by cutting down.
  • transitive verb To cut with an ax; to fell with a sharp instrument; -- often with down, or off.
  • transitive verb To form or shape with a sharp instrument; to cut; hence, to form laboriously; -- often with out.
  • transitive verb To cut in pieces; to chop; to hack.
  • noun obsolete Hue; color.
  • noun obsolete Shape; form.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To chop away at; to whittle down; to mow down.
  • verb transitive To shape; to form.
  • verb transitive, US To act according to, to conform to; usually construed with to.
  • noun obsolete hue; colour
  • noun obsolete shape; form

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb strike with an axe; cut down, strike
  • verb make or shape as with an axe

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English hewen, from Old English hēawan; see kau- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English hewen, from Old English hēawan, from Proto-Germanic *hawwanan, from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂u- (“to strike, hew, forge”). Cognate with Scots hew, hewe, West Frisian houwe, Dutch houwen, German hauen, Swedish hugga, Icelandic höggva; and with Latin cūdō ("strike, beat, pound, forge"), Lithuanian káuti ("to beat, forge"), Albanian hu ("a club, pole"). See also hoe.

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Examples

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  • Reminding myself of my intentions and goals helps me hew to my studying routine.

    October 2, 2014