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Glite Dictionary
to hew out

to hew out

7.3
Cut a piece of wood or stone into a shape with a tool like an axe
  • phrasal verb
  • /hjuː aʊt/
translation icon : tallar
  • The sculptor hew out a beautiful statue from a solid block of marble.

Examples

  • After hours of labor, they finally hew out a path through the dense forest.

  • The home I hewed out of this wilderness with my bare hands is no longer mine.

    Bye Bye Birdie (1963)

  • He hew out a bench from a large piece of wood using only a knife.

Synonyms

to saw
vsto hew out
85 1.0

To cut wood using a tool with a thin toothed blade

includes shaping with various tools not only toothed blades
cut out
vsto hew out
25 3.4

A shape removed from paper or cloth with scissors

is the action of making or shaping rather than the resulting removed piece
to hew
vsto hew out
8 7.9

To cut or shape wood with a heavy sharp tool like an axe

is used for many materials and not limited to wood
to jigsaw
vsto hew out
1 4.6

To cut shapes in wood with a small electric saw

is the general action that can use many different cutting tools

How Forceful

to excavate
10 6.0
to chop off
45 3.4
to hew out
7.3
cut out
25 3.4
to shape
299 2.0

Surface Forms

hew out infinitive
hewing out present participle
hews out third person singular
hewed out past
hewn out past participle

Morphology

hew + out

The meaning 'to make or shape something by cutting' is directly derivable from 'hew' (to cut or shape with a sharp tool) combined with 'out', which adds an outward/removal or completion sense. This follows the common verb+out compositional pattern (cf. 'carve out', 'cut out'), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Hew out comes from the simple image of cutting: workers would hew, meaning 'to cut', deep into wood or rock until the shape came out. So the phrase now means 'to make or shape something by cutting'.