tool.
Any physical device meant to ease or do a task.
Meaning & usage
Any physical device meant to ease or do a task.
Several prehistoric tools, including a stone ax, were found during the dig.
A screwdriver is a tool that no household should be without.
Any physical device meant to ease or do a task. Any piece of equipment used in a profession, such as a craftsman's.
the tools of the trade
Rakes, shovels, hoes, and spades are some of the tools of the gardener's trade.
Anything that aids someone to perform an operation; an instrument; a means.
Idleness is a tool of the devil.
A spreadsheet app and a bookkeeping app are some of the principal tools of a bookkeeper.
A piece of software used to develop software or hardware, or to perform low-level operations.
The software engineer had been developing lots of EDA tools.
a tool for recovering deleted files from a disk
A person or group which is used or controlled, usually unwittingly, by another person or group, a pawn.
She was a tool of the pharmaceutical lobby.
He was a tool of a foreign influence operation.
A particular skill pertaining to baseball (such as hitting, running, etc.).
a five-tool player
A penis, notably with a sexual or erotic connotation.
An obnoxious or uptight person.
He won't sell us tickets because it's 3:01, and they went off sale at 3. That guy's such a tool.
A handgun.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English tool, tol, from Old English tōl (“tool, implement, instrument”, literally “that with which one prepares something”), perhaps borrowed from Old Norse tól, but at any rate ultimately from Proto-Germanic *tōlą (“that which is used in preparation, tool”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewh₂- (“to tie to, secure”), equivalent to taw (“to prepare”) + -le (agent suffix). Cognate with Scots tuil (“tool, implement, instrument, device”), Icelandic tól (“tool”), Faroese tól (“tool, instrument”). Related to Old English tāwian (“to make, prepare, or cultivate”); see taw, and tow ("fibres used for spinning").
To work on or shape with tools, e.g., hand-tooled leather.
To equip with tools.
To work very hard.
To put down another person (possibly in a subtle, hidden way), and in that way to use him or her to meet a goal.
Dude, he's not your friend. He's just tooling you.
To intentionally attack the ball so that it deflects off a blocker out of bounds.
To drive (a coach or other vehicle).
To carry or convey in a coach or other vehicle.
To travel in a vehicle; to ride or drive.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English tool, tol, from Old English tōl (“tool, implement, instrument”, literally “that with which one prepares something”), perhaps borrowed from Old Norse tól, but at any rate ultimately from Proto-Germanic *tōlą (“that which is used in preparation, tool”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewh₂- (“to tie to, secure”), equivalent to taw (“to prepare”) + -le (agent suffix). Cognate with Scots tuil (“tool, implement, instrument, device”), Icelandic tól (“tool”), Faroese tól (“tool, instrument”). Related to Old English tāwian (“to make, prepare, or cultivate”); see taw, and tow ("fibres used for spinning").
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.