hewn

American  

[hyoon, yoon] / hyun, yun /

adjective

1. felled and roughly shaped by hewing.

   hewn logs.

2. given a rough surface.

   hewn stone.

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Other Word Forms

• unhewn adjective
• well-hewn adjective

Etymology

Origin of hewn

1300–50; Middle English hewen, past participle of hew

Explanation

Something that's hewn is carved out of wood or another hard material. A hewn rock statue is cut and shaped out of a slab of stone. Your most prized possession could be a hand-hewn chair made by your grandfather, carved with a chisel out of piece of oak. A child who lives in the country might spend hours with a pocket knife making sharply hewn sticks, one after another. Hewn is the past participle of the verb hew, which comes from the Old English root heawan, "to chop, hack, or gash."

Example Sentences

But when he got it right, his lyrics had an aphoristic directness that made them seem more hewn than written.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 9, 2025

Its throwing arm, currently at 12 o’clock, weighs 360 pounds and is not hewn or sanded; knots are visible in the wood.

From Slate • Jul. 7, 2025

The roughly hewn goober had been strapped to the back of a logging truck, hauled across the country and parked near the White House.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 9, 2025

Other kinds of complex technologies also developed in the Middle Pleistocene, including wooden structures constructed with logs hewn using hafted tools, which are stone blades affixed to wooden or bone handles.

From Science Daily • Jun. 17, 2024

The vice minister’s wife sits so upright that it seems as if her spine is hewn from oak.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

Related Words

• chiseled
• engraved
• sculpted
• sculptured