Forms: 1 tól, 2–4 tol, 4–7 tole, toole, (5 tule, toyel, 5–6 toile, 5–7 toyle, 6 toyll, towle, 7 tooell), 4– tool. [OE. tól neut., = ON. tól n. pl. (cf. Norw. tøler):—OTeut. *tôwlom, tôlom, f. *tôw- to prepare, make (cogn. with Goth taujan: see TAW v.1) + agent-suffix -lom, -EL1.]
1. ‘Any instrument of manual operation’ (J.); a mechanical implement for working upon something, as by cutting, striking, rubbing, or other process, in any manual art or industry; usually, one held in and operated directly by the hand (or fixed in position, as in a lathe), but also including certain simple machines, as the lathe; sometimes extended to simple instruments of other kinds, as in quot. 1893. See also EDGE-TOOL.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xiv. § 1. Þæt mete and drync & claðas, & tol to swelcum cræfte.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Exod. xx. 25. Gif þu þin tol ahefst ofer hyt, hit biþ besmiten.
a. 1100. Gereja, in Anglia (1886), IX. 262. He sceal fela tola to tune tilian.
c. 1205. Lay., 29253. Nettes … and þa tolen þer to.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1342. Formed with handes Wyth tool out of harde tre, & telded on lofte.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 4708. A pelare of marble Quare-on a tulke wiþ a toile þis titill vp he wrate.
c. 1440. York Myst., xxxiv. 298. I warand all redy Oure tooles bothe lesse and more.
1497. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 89. Carpenters toles … j chest.
1501. Bury Wills (Camd.), 84. To … Margarett my wyff all my stuff of houshold … excepte my werkyng toole, weche I wyll that John my sone haue.
1570. Levins, Manip., 214/45. A Toyle, instrumentum.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 31. Few lends (but fooles) their working tooles.
1597. Knaresborough Wills (Surtees), I. 207. One lowme with the towles yr unto belonginge.
a. 1660. Contemp. Hist. Irel. (Ir. Archæol. Soc.), II. 172. All theire bagage, tooells, and instruments.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 572. Moulds … from which he formd First his own Tooles.
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 62. His [the Surgeon’s] Tools are of various Sorts and Sizes.
1818. Byron, Juan, I. cci. Good workmen never quarrel with their tools.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., s.v., Of late it has become usual to embrace in the general term machine tools, such machines as the lathe, planer, slotting-machine, and others employed in the manufacture of machinery.
1893. Hodges, Elem. Photogr. (1907), 22. The anastigmat [lens] will … prove the more useful tool.
b. A weapon of war, esp. a sword. arch.
[c. 1000. Ags. Gloss., in Haupt’s Zeitschrift, IX. 424. Instrumenta bellica, wiʓlice tol.]
c. 1386. Chaucer, Nun’s Pr. T., 96. We alle desiren … no fool Ne hym þat is agast of euery tool.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 3617. The toppe-castelles he stuffede with toyelys, as hyme lykyde.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 938. Iason … gryppet a grym toole, gyrd of his hede.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. i. 37. Draw thy toole, here comes of the house of Mountagues.
1671. H. Foulis, Hist. Rom. Treasons (1681), 228. Pope John xxii … pulls out his tools against Lewes.
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 63. He’s somewhat prouder of that long Tool of his, that hangs without board.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., iv. Draw thy tool, man, and after him.
† c. The cutting part of a knife, the blade. Obs.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xxvii. 129. Little hulchback’t demi-knives, the iron toole whereof is two inches long, and the wooden handle one inch thick.
d. spec. in technical use: (a) Bookbinding. A small stamp or roller used for impressing an ornamental design upon leather book-covers: cf. TOOLING 2 b. (b) A large kind of chisel. (c) A generic name for any kind of paint-brush used by house-painters or decorators; also, a large brush used by picture-painters. (d) An abbreviated form of grafting-tool, etc.
(a) 1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Book-binding, These ornaments are made with each its several gilding-tool, engraven in relievo. Ibid. To apply the gold, they glaze those parts of the leather, whereon the tools are to be applied, lightly over [etc.].
1837. Whittock, etc., Bk. Trades (1842), 37 (Bookbinder). The tools that produce the figures or letters are applied hot.
1895. Zaehnsdorf, Short Hist. Bookbinding, 13. He cut most of these tools himself,… because he could not find a tool cutter of sufficient skill.
(b) 1815. [see TOOLING 2].
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 341. Of the two kinds of chisels … the tool is the largest.
1842–76. Gwilt, Encycl. Arch., § 1910. The tools used to work the face of a stone are, successively, the point, the inch tool, the boaster … and the broad tool. Ibid. The broad tool 31/2 inches at the cutting edge.
(c) 1859. Gullick & Timbs, Paint., 198. The larger brushes … made of hog-hair … are called ‘tools.’
1860. Piesse, Lab. Chem. Wonders, 153. A painter calls a paint-brush ‘a tool.
2. fig. Anything used in the manner of a tool; a thing (concrete or abstract) with which some operation is performed; a means of effecting something; an instrument.
c. 1000. Eccles. Inst., c. 21. Þis synt þa lara and þa tol gastlices cræftes.
1555. Phaër, Æneid, II. E j b. At last Those toles for shift at death extreme, to fend them sells they cast.
1611. Sir W. Mure, Misc. Poems, ii. 46. He [Cupid] … lelt behind his tort’ring toyle [rhyme spoyle; cf. l. 40 Ye bow, ye schafts, ye quaver and ye brace].
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxv. 132. They … make use of Similitudes … and other tooles of Oratory.
1674. Grew, Disc. Mixture, ii. § 5. As the World, taken together, is Natures Shop; so the Principles of Things are her Tools, and her Materials.
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas, VIII. ix. III. 161. You have (to use the expression of our tennis-court) the universal tool: that is to say, you are qualified for every thing.
1847. L. Hunt, Men, Women, & B., I. i. 7. Mechanical knowledge is a great and a glorious tool in the hands of man.
1884. B. Price, in Contemp. Rev., March, 381. Money … is a pure tool—nothing more.
b. A bodily organ; spec. the male generative organ (or pl. organs). Now arch. or slang. [So ON. tól.]
1553. Becon, Reliques of Rome (1563), 18. All his toles that appertayne vnto the court of Venus.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., V. iv. 35. Or haue wee some strange Indian with the great Toole, come to Court?
1687. Shadwell, Juvenal, 307. What pleasure can the weak Old Doting Fool, Expect from that infirm and Aged Tool?
1885. R. F. Burton, Arab. Nts., III. 7. I was become even as a woman, without manly tool like other men.
3. fig. A person used by another for his own ends; one who is, or allows himself to be, made a mere instrument for some purpose; a cat’s-paw.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. i. 35. Which made some take him for a tool, That knaves do work with, call’d a fool.
1688. Bp. Parker, in Magd. Coll. (O.H.S.), 240. To set me here to make me his tool and his prop!
1711. Hearne, Collect. (O.H.S.), III. 133. Charlett and his Tools have got Rogers advanc’d.
1769. Junius Lett., xxiv. (1770), 153. If there be any tool of administration daring enough to deny these facts.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iv. I. 494. The sheriffs were the tools of the government.
1874. Green, Short Hist., vii. § 4. 379. Mary had used Darnley as a tool to effect the ruin of his confederates.
b. (esp. qualified by poor or the like.) An unskilful workman; a shiftless person. slang or dial.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Slug, a drone, or dull Tool.
1722. G. Vertue, Diary, in N. & Q. (1861), 2nd Ser. XII. 81/1. The organists are poor tools and very deficient.
1863. Mrs. Toogood, Yorks. Dial. (MS.). You are a poor tool, your work is not done as it ought to be.
4. Bookbinding. (transf. from 1 d (a).) A tooled design on a book-cover.
1881. Cundall, Bookbindings, 76. He began with a small number of dotted tools, foliage, and the so-called seventeenth-century tools.
1885. C. G. W. Lock, Workshop Receipts, Ser. IV. 252/1. A book on Natural History should have a bird, insect, shell or other tool indicative of the contents.
5. attrib. and Comb., as tool-basket, -box, † -budget (BUDGET 2 b), -chest, -cutter, -dressing, -extractor, -gauge, -handle, -maker, -making sb. and adj., -pouch, -rack, -seller, -shed, -shop, -tray, -user, -using sb. and adj.; tool-box, spec. the steel box (BOX sb.2 15) in which the cutting tool of a planing or other machine is clamped; tool-car (U.S.), a car used on a railway equipped with tools and appliances for clearing the line after an accident; a breakdown car; tool-coupling, a screw coupling by which the operating part of a tool is fastened to the handle (Knight); tool-holder, (a) a handle by which a tool is held in the hand, esp. a detachable handle for various tools; (b) a tray with a rack for holding a set of tools; (c) a device for holding a tool firmly in place, as in a lathe, or when being ground upon a grindstone; tool-house, a building in which tools are kept, a tool-shed; tool-mark, the mark of a tool upon any object that has been shaped or worked by it; tool-marking, the etching of a mark or lettering upon a steel tool; tool-post, an upright piece in the tool-rest of a lathe, with a slot and a screw for holding the cutting-tool; tool-rest, a part of a lathe serving to support a hand-tool, or to hold a mechanical tool in place (in the latter case often having various adjustments for different positions of the tool); toolsmith, a man who makes steel tools; tool-stack = tool-post, tool-holder (c); tool-stay, a tool-holder in a lathe-rest, with a slot for a drill or other tool (Knight); tool steel, steel of the quality used for tools; tool-stock = tool-post; tool-stone, name for a palæolithic implement consisting of a natural stone very slightly adapted to be held in the hand, or used as a rude tool.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Tool-basket, a carpenter’s or other workman’s basket, for holding tools.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess., Prudence. [He] builds a work-bench, or gets his *tool-box set in the corner of the barn-chamber.
1904. Lineham’s Text-bk. Mech. Eng., 171. The tool box is fixed to a ram, the sliding of which in saddle gives the cut.
1794. W. Felton, Carriages (1801), I. 223. *Tool budget is a small convenience made to hang by straps under the hind part of a carriage.
1778. Cook, Voy. Pacific, IV. v. (1784), II. 373. As well and ingeniously made, as if they were furnished with the most complete *tool-chest.
1882. Rep. to Ho. Repr. Prec. Met. U.S., 594. It includes tools, *tool-dressing and grinding.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Tool-extractor, an implement for recovering from drilled holes broken tools or portions of rods. Ibid., 2594/1. Nasmyth’s *tool-gage, for testing the angularity of the cutting-face of iron-turning tools.
1887. Moloney, Forestry W. Afr., 207. Red wood used for *tool-handles and mallets.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2594/1. A *tool-holder for dentists.
1887. D. A. Low, Machine Draw. (1892), 110. Tool-holders must be drawn in their proper positions in the ram, and not separate as in the diagram.
1905. Athenæum, 14 Oct., 510/1. The needles used were European, fitted into watchmaker’s tool-holders.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xiv. Before he trundled them off to the *tool-house.
1908. Betw. Trent & Ancholme, 10. A lattice-gate, into the tool-house.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Tool-maker.
1888. E. Clodd, Story Creation, xi. 217. If he is not the only tool-user, he is the only tool-maker among the Primates.
1785. Boswell, Jrnl. Tour Heb., 25 n. Dr. Franklin said, Man was ‘a *tool-making animal,’ which is very well; for, no animal but man makes a thing, by means of which he can make another thing.
1893. Eliza R. Sunderland, in Barrows, Parl. Relig., I. 630. Religion is an attribute of humanity, as reason and langauge and tool-making are.
1865. J. F. Campbell, Frost & Fire, I. x. 94. Before a craftsman can recognise a *tool-mark, he must be familiar with the tool.
1864. Webster, *Tool-post, the part of a tool-rest that holds a stationary cutting-tool;—called also tool-stock. Ibid., *Tool-rest (Machine-tools), the part that supports a tool-post or a tool.
1878. Aylward, Transvaal, ii. (1881), 18. Everywhere one may observe that older houses are being used as waggon shelters, coach-houses, *tool-rooms.
1875. Sir T. Seaton, Fret-Cutting, 71. The *tool-seller has to pay the workman for dressing the wood.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, lv. To break open a *tool-shed in the garden.
1875. Sir T. Seaton, Fret-Cutting, 7. Unprepared wood bought at the *tool-shop.
1884. C. G. W. Lock, Workshop Receipts, Ser. III. 269/2. A *toolsmith usually heats cast steel to what he terms a cherry-red.
1868. Joynson, Metals, 90. For *tool-steel, from 1.5 to 1.7 per cent [of charcoal being required].
1894. Bowker, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 419. Too costly … to be in demand except for tool steel.
1864. *Tool-stock [see tool-post].
1865. Lubbock, Preh. Times, iv. 76. The oval *tool-stones … are oval or egg-shaped stones, more or less indented on one or both surfaces…. Some antiquaries suppose that they were held between the fingers and thumb, and used as hammers or chippers.
1888. *Tool-user [see tool-maker].
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., I. v. This Definition of the *Tool-using Animal appears to us, of all that Animal-sort, considerably the precisest and best.
1862. D. Wilson, Preh. Man, vi. (1865), 96. Man was created with a tool-using instinct.
