1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mattock

MATTOCK (O.E. mattuc, of uncertain origin), a tool having a double iron head, of which one end is shaped like an adze, and the other like a pickaxe. The head has a socket in the centre in which the handle is inserted transversely to the blades. It is used chiefly for grubbing and rooting among tree stumps in plantations and copses, where the roots are too close for the use of a spade, or for loosening hard soil.