curtaxe

curtaxe (plural curtaxes)

1. Alternative form of curtal-axe: a cutlass.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 42:

     With curtaxe vsed Diamond to smite, / And Triamond to handle speare and shield, / But speare and curtaxe both vsd Priamond in field.

     Diamond habitually fought using a cutlass, and Triamond using a spear and shield, but Priamond habitually used both spear and cutlass on the field [of battle].