Definition of "helve"

helve

/hɛlv/

noun
plural helves
1. The handle or haft of a tool or weapon.
  Quotations
  It was the bad ax-helve someone had sold me— / “Made on machine,” he said, plowing the grain […]
  1917, Robert Frost, "The Ax-helve"
  Happily they were only sketchily armed, the group-leaders carried pistols and pick-helves.
  1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 847
2. A forge hammer lifted by a cam acting on the helve between the fulcrum and the head.
verb
third-person singular simple present helves, present participle helving, simple past and past participle helved
1. (transitive) To furnish (an axe, etc.) with a helve.