arch. and dial. Forms: 1 twibile, 1–4 twybile (4 -byle); 1, 4– twibil, 1, 6– twibill (6 -bylle); 1, 4– twybill, 4–6 -bil, -byl(l(e, 6 -bille; 4 twybel(l, 5–6 twyble, 6 twible, Sc. twibbil, 7 twibble; 6–7 twyvel(l, 8 twivil(l: see also TUBBAL, TUBBER2, and two-bill (TWO B. IV. 2). [OE. twibil, -bill neut., and twibile masc., f. TWI- + BILL sb.1 and sb.2]
† 1. A kind of ax with two cutting edges; formerly used for cutting mortises. Obs.
a. 1000. Prose Life Guthlac, xii. (1848), 56. He … ʓenam sum twibil, and mid þan þry men to deaðe ofsloh.
a. 1000. Ags. Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 194/35. Bipennis securis, twilafte æx, uel twibile.
1295. Acc. Exch. K. R., 5/8 m. 9 (P.R.O.). Et iiij. d. … in .j. Twybile emendando.
a. 1310. in Wright, Lyric P., xxxix. 110. He mot myd is twybyl other trous make.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter lxxiii. 7. Wiþ bradaxis þai share down þe ȝates of it … in brade axe and twybile [Vulg. in securi et ascia] þai kest it down.
14[?]. Tundale’s Vis. (Wagner), 722. Summe had twybyll, brodax and nawger.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 505/1. Twybyl, wryhtys instrument … bisacuta, biceps.
1500. Ortus Vocab., Bisacuta, a twybyll.
c. 1500. Debate Carpenter’s Tools, 13, in Hazl., E. P. P., I. 80. Ȝe, ȝe, seyd the twybylle, Thou spekes euer ageyne skylle.
1548. Elyot’s Dict., Bipennis, a twybill, wherwith carpenters doo make their mortayses.
1587. Will of Arraie (Somerset Ho.). Two wombells and a Twyvell.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Twibil (Belg. Tweebill), an instrument used by Carpenters to make mortise-holes.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 168. Grinding-stones … for thicker edg’d tooles, such as Axes, Hatchets, Chisells, Adds, Twy-bills, &c.
attrib. 1641. Wit’s Recreat., § 583. ’Twill make a good ship-anchor, when he lackes. It is his gimlet, and his twibill axe.
2. A mattock; also a similar tool used in mining, a tubbal. Now local.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., I. 1153. The mattok, twyble [v.r. twibil], picoys.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 505/1. Twybyl, or mattoke, marra,… ligo.
1555. Phaër, Æneid, II. E iv. The plowmen with their axes strong … and twibles tall.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 11 b. Iron hookes, Iron forkes, Twybilles, Dongforkes.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., XVIII. 77. She learn’d the churlish ax and twybill to prepare, To steel the coulter’s edge.
1687. Taubman, London’s Tri., 7. Miners … bearing Spades, Pickaxes, Twibbles and Crows, fit to sink Shafts, and make Addits.
1898. N. & Q., 9th Ser. I. 243/2. [Given as a Devonshire name for ‘a two-billed pick.’]
b. A reaping-hook used in cutting beans and peas; a pea-hook. dial.
1763. Museum Rust., I. lxii. 263. The regularity with which these beans are sown, makes it much easier to cut them with the twibil and hink, than if they were sown at random. Ibid., lxiii. 266. Each labourer had in his right hand a cutting instrument called a twibil, and in his left a sort of hook called a hink.
1796. J. Boys, Agric. Kent, 91. It [canary seed] is cut in the harvest … with a hook, called a twibil, and a hink.
1887. Kentish Gloss., Tribil (twei·bil), a hook for cutting beans.
† c. See quot. Obs. rare–0.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Twivill, an Iron-Tool us’d by Paviers.
3. A double-bladed battle-ax or bill. poet. arch.
In quot. 1678 app. a halberd carried by a constable of the watch.
1558. Phaër, Æneid, II. E ij. Him self in hand … a twyble great doth bryng.
1565. Golding, Ovid’s Met., IV. 28. Lycurgus with his twibill sharpe.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XV. 656. Sharpe axes, twibils, two-hand swords, and speares with two heads borne, Were then the weapons.
1678. Jovialists Coronat., 3, in Loyal Garland, D viij. If … a Halberdly train, Or a Constable chance to rebel, And would with his twyvels maliciously swell And against the Kings party raise Arms.
1834. Planché, Brit. Costume, 31. They [Anglo-Saxons] had also axes with long handles which they called bills,… and the double-axe or bipennis (twy-bill).
1865. Kingsley, Herew., xix. A little fair-haired man … who heaved up a long twybill, or double axe.
1876. Morris, Sigurd, I. 68. He bore a mighty twi-bill as he waded the fight-sheaves through.
