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View synonyms for hatchet job

hatchet job

noun

  1. a maliciously destructive critique or act:

    The special committee has done a hatchet job on the new proposal.



hatchet job

noun

  1. informal.
    a malicious or devastating verbal or written attack
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of hatchet job1

First recorded in 1940–45
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Idioms and Phrases

see hatchet man , def. 2.
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Example Sentences

This is not a hatchet job, and it certainly could have been.

A wonderful counterblast in The Times today to yesterday's extraordinary hatchet job on Cressida Bonas in the Mail.

The hatchet job quickly went viral, with the twitterverse agreeing that it was terribly funny and horrendously mean.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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