tool
/tul/ verb C2- 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 travel in a vehicle; to ride or drive. · March 8, 1890, Byron P. Stephenson, "My Trip to Brazil", in Illustrated American boys on their bicycles tooling along the well-kept roads
He/she/it tools · Past tooled · Past participle tooled · -ing form tooling
Verb forms
- Base form
- tool
- He/she/it
- tools
- Past
- tooled
- Past participle
- tooled
- -ing form
- tooling
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
He meant in the end to have the estate, and he was ready to use any tool or run any risk for that end.
But now I see that I was never anything but a tool in his hands.
I could endure it all, ill-usage, solitude, a life of deception, everything, as long as I could still cling to the hope that I had his love, but now I know that in this also I have been his dupe and his tool.” She broke into passionate sobbing as she spoke.
When he reached home he hid the rake in the tool house, but the sugar he carried in to Marilla.
Other matches
Learn tool in real texts
With a free account, hover any word in the library for its meaning, hear it read aloud, save words for review timed to your memory, and see how much of each book you already know.