Pickaxe
A heavy tool with a pointed head for breaking stone — force directed into one point to crack what would not yield to a flat blow.
A pickaxe in a dream is the dream's image of force directed into one point to crack what would not yield to a flat blow. The pick is not for cutting and not for prying; the pick goes in narrow and breaks the stone where the stone could not be persuaded by pressure. The dream brings the pickaxe when something in your life — a long-stuck problem, a refusal you have been arguing with for months, a hardened position in a relationship — requires force concentrated to a single sharp point rather than broad effort. A pick swung accurately at the right line in the stone is the dream affirming the focused work. A pick used wildly, the point chipping the surface without ever finding the fracture, is the dream noting that the force has not been concentrated correctly, and the stone is still whole and the arm is now tired.