hatchet
Americannoun
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hatchets
plural
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a small, short-handled ax having the end of the head opposite the blade in the form of a hammer, made to be used with one hand.
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a tomahawk.
verb (used with object)
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to cut, destroy, kill, etc., with a hatchet.
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to abridge, delete, excise, etc..
The network censor may hatchet 30 minutes from the script.
idioms
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bury the hatchet, to become reconciled or reunited; make peace.
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take up the hatchet, to begin or resume hostilities; prepare for or go to war.
The natives are taking up the hatchet against the enemy.
noun
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a short axe used for chopping wood, etc
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a tomahawk
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(modifier) of narrow dimensions and sharp features
a hatchet face
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to cease hostilities and become reconciled
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of hatchet
1300–50; 1670–80, hatchet for def. 6; Middle English hachet < Middle French hachette, diminutive ( see -et) of hache ax < Frankish *hapja kind of knife; akin to Greek kóptein to cut ( cf. comma, syncope)
Explanation
A hatchet is a little ax used for chopping wood or for hewing a round log into a squared-off shape. If you go camping, you might take a hatchet with you. If someone hands you a hatchet and tells you to start splitting a pile of firewood, they expect you to chop each log into smaller pieces. The difference between a hatchet and an ax is that hatchets have short handles and are meant to be held in one hand. Axes have longer handles for two-handed chopping. If someone wants to "bury the hatchet," it's not a threat—they just want to end an argument and be friends.
Vocabulary lists containing hatchet
Hatchet
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"Train Time," Vocabulary from the short story
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The River
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
No media hatchet man could come up with a more damaging word to describe what happened out there.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
The hatchet burial has been brewing for a while.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
The burying of the hatchet is a great relief for Edwards, who was troubled by the tension between his colleagues during their time on “Good Day L.A.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
While a pair of lawsuits fractured their relationship between 2021 and 2023, IBM and GlobalFoundries have since buried the hatchet.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
We searched for him for a few blocks, Brian whacking at the bushes with his hatchet, but we couldn’t find him.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
The documentary closes on a similar note: Take That are national treasures, their reputation is secure, their hatchets are buried.
From BBC ● Jan. 27, 2026
The guests are a bundle of nerves when they arrive, still reeling from Logan’s death and their subsequent hurried, haphazard burying of various hatchets.
From New York Times ● Apr. 23, 2023
When agents stopped a truck going through a Border Patrol highway checkpoint in Texas earlier this month they found 70 illegal immigrants in the semi-trailer — and walkie-talkie and two hatchets.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 27, 2022
This is perhaps why the title of Aron’s book is taken from Carry Nation, the 19th-century temperance crusader who took hatchets to bar tops and greeted bartenders as “destroyers of men’s souls.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 2020
Another man had appeared with what looked like roughly woven blankets, while yet another produced a box of hatchets.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
