What's the difference between billhook and handbill?

Billhook


Definition:

  • (n.) A thick, heavy knife with a hooked point, used in pruning hedges, etc. When it has a short handle, it is sometimes called a hand bill; when the handle is long, a hedge bill or scimiter.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Resembling a billhook, with Foule Crag its wickedly curved tip, this final flourish looks daunting but can be skirted to one side, up awkward slabs.
  • (2) The Walter’s Tools library in Cumbria loans out a heritage collection of billhooks and scythes; modern share shops have shelves of useful stuff you only need occasionally, as do your neighbours .
  • (3) Foule Crag may sound Chaucerian, and indeed can prompt the kind of Anglo-Saxon language found in The Miller's Tale; it is as inextricably linked with Sharp Edge as is the wickedly curved tip on a Staffordshire billhook.

Handbill


Definition:

  • (n.) A loose, printed sheet, to be distributed by hand.
  • (n.) A pruning hook.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The exhibition showcases the tastes and pastimes of this middle market, largely by means of the printed images, books and handbills that advertised and explained them.
  • (2) The fliers were inexpensive handbills describing the center's location and services, distributed to 23,000 households.
  • (3) The Times writer was amazed by what he saw: ‘The warmth and life of the flesh, the breathing in the nostrils… ’ For a few cents more, the man from the Times might have bought a curious pamphlet quite unlike the usual hyperbolic handbills to these shows, telling how the portrait came to be painted in Madrid in 1623 and by what luck it came into the possession of a humble tradesman, as the owner described himself, two centuries later in England.
  • (4) But first she sang at a tiny cafe down the street, Aux Folies , an art-deco relic with cubist mosaics, swirls of neon lettering above its zinc counter, and iron pillars plastered with handbills for shows dating back to the 1920s.
  • (5) Condoms were advertised during the 18th century, usually by handbill.
  • (6) 3% cited mobile loudspeakers, handbills, posters or slides in cinemas.