hew

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 18, 2022 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>hew</strong> &#149; \HYOO\&nbsp; &#149; <em>verb</em><br /> <p><em>Hew</em> is commonly used in the phrase <em>to hew to</em>, meaning "to conform to or adhere to (something)." The word also means "to give shape to with or as if with an ax." Both <em>hewed</em> and <em>hewn</em> are used as <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/past%20participles">past participles</a>.</p> <p>// The senator has always <em>hewed</em> closely <em>to</em> the agenda of his political party.</p> <p>// The settlers <em>hewed</em> logs for building cabins.</p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hew">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"While Michelan­gelo would later claim that he had raced back to Florence from Rome when the fledgling Florentine republic announced that it would be commissioning a new work to be <em>hewn</em> from a giant block of marble in its possession, the fact of the matter was that the block … had defied several generations of sculptors who had chipped away at its base...." — Victoria Coates, <em>The National Review</em>, 27 Dec. 2021</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p><em>Hew</em> refers to shaping something with a tool (such as an ax), but what does that have to do with conforming or adhering to something? That use of the word was influenced by the phrase "to hew to the line." The "line" is the mark along the length of a log indicating where to chop in order to shape a beam. "Hewing to the line," literally, is cutting along the mark—adhering to it—until the side of the log is squared.</p> <br /><br /> </p> </font>