Meaning

A small, light axe with a short handle; a tomahawk..

Definitions by Sense

1. A small, light axe with a short handle; a tomahawk.
2. (figurative) Belligerence, animosity; harsh criticism.
3. (transitive) To cut with a hatchet.

Example Sentences

“It must be admitted, Nick, you are a very literal logician—‘dog won't eat dog,’ is our English saying. Still the Yankee will fight the Yengeese, it would seem. In a word, the Great Father, in England, has raised the hatchet against his American children.”

Buried was the bloody hatchet, / Buried was the dreadful war-club, / Buried were all warlike weapons, / And the war-cry was forgotten.

The fellow was armed with a stone-shod spear, a stone knife and a hatchet. In his black hair were several gay-colored feathers.

to bury the hatchet

hatchet job

“Dat true as missionary! What a soldier do, cap'in, if so much peace? Warrior love a war-path.” “I wish it were not so, Nick. But my hatchet is buried, I hope, for ever.”

The savagery with which Michael Hofmann can wield a hatchet has earned him unlikely fans outside the literary circuit. A recent issue of Viz ran a cartoon of the critic, poet and translator urinating all over a phone booth, while two donnish FR Leavis types nodded appreciatively from a safe distance.

Word Forms

• hatchets
• hatcheting
• hatchetting
• hatcheted
• hatchetted

Synonyms for hatchet

Related Words

When Should You Use Hatchet?

Use hatchet when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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