ax

or axe

[aks]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR ax ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural ax·es [ak-siz] /ˈæk sɪz/.

an instrument with a bladed head on a handle or helve, used for hewing, cleaving, chopping, etc.

Jazz Slang. any musical instrument.

the ax, Informal.

dismissal from employment: to get the ax.
expulsion from school.
rejection by a lover, friend, etc.: His girlfriend gave him the ax.
any usually summary removal or curtailment.

verb (used with object), axed, ax·ing.

to shape or trim with an ax.

to chop, split, destroy, break open, etc., with an ax: The firemen had to ax the door to reach the fire.

Informal. to dismiss, restrict, or destroy brutally, as if with an ax: The main office axed those in the field who didn't meet their quota. Congress axed the budget.

Nearby words

Idioms

have an ax to grind, to have a personal or selfish motive: His interest may be sincere, but I suspect he has an ax to grind.

Origin of ax

before 1000; Middle English; ax(e), ex(e), Old English æx, æces; akin to Gothic aquizi, Old Norse øx, ǫx, Old High German acc(h)us, a(c)kus (German Axt), Middle High German plural exa < Germanic *akwiz-, akuz-, aksi- ≪ *ákəs, áks-; Latin ascia (< *acsiā), Greek axī́nē; < Indo-European *ag-s-

Related formsax·like, adjective

ax-

variant of axi-, especially before a vowel.

ax.

axiom.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for ax

One morning a few years ago, the editor left his apartment to find an ax stuck into a log on his doorstep.
The Kremlin Is Killing Echo of Moscow, Russia’s Last Independent Radio Station|Anna Nemtsova|November 7, 2014|DAILY BEAST
“Kasich wields his ax much less selectively than do most of his party colleagues,” the New York Times Magazine reported in 1998.
John Kasich: The GOP’s Hobbled 2016 Dark Horse|W. James Antle III|November 3, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Then, one warm summer day, Andrew and Abby were found hacked to death more than a dozen times with an ax.
Would You Stay in Lizzie Borden’s Ax-Murder House?|Nina Strochlic|October 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The ensuing night gave me the grand migraine of my life, with throbs like the blows of an ax and continuous pinwheels.
The Stacks: H.L. Mencken on the 1904 Baltimore Fire|H.L. Mencken|October 4, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Armed with an ax or a machete, he stops incoming cars for questioning: Who are they?
Nigeria’s Do-It-Yourself Boko Haram Busters|Nina Strochlic|May 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST
They commence' to ax me questions concernin' some historical happenin's an' I answer them all.
Slave Narratives Vol. XIV. South Carolina, Part 2|Works Projects Administration
It is easy to build a palace with men and tools; it is difficult to build a log cabin with nothing but an ax.
The Blazed Trail|Stewart Edward White
Not with the "ax and gun" went they, as will be seen, but with the ax, and with the hope of bettering their condition.
John Brown, Soldier of Fortune|Hill Peebles Wilson
The prisoner knelt beside the block, and bent his head above it; the ax flashed aloft, and descended with a resounding crash.
The Scrap Book, Volume 1, No. 5|Various
We got to work again with the ax, each thinking his own ways.
Wanderers|Knut Hamsun