Hatchet
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A small, light axe with a short handle; a tomahawk.
"“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.”"
- 2 a small ax with a short handle used with one hand (usually to chop wood) wordnet
- 3 Belligerence, animosity; harsh criticism. figuratively
"to bury the hatchet"
- 4 weapon consisting of a fighting ax; used by North American Indians wordnet
- 1 To cut with a hatchet. transitive
Example
More examples"At one time we were enemies, but we've buried the hatchet and we are now on friendly terms with each other."
Etymology
From Middle English hachet, a borrowing from Old French hachete, diminutive of hache (“axe”), from Vulgar Latin *happia, from Frankish *happjā, from Proto-Germanic *hapjǭ, *habjǭ (“knife”), from Proto-Indo-European *kop- (“to strike, to beat”). Cognate with Old High German happa, heppa, habba (“reaper, sickle”), German Hippe (“billhook”), Dutch heep, hiep (“billhook”), and Ancient Greek κοπίς (kopís). Mostly displaced native Old English handæx, whence Modern English hand axe.
Related phrases
More for "hatchet"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.