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• meat ax
  meat ax

  noun

  cleaver.
• meat-ax
  meat-ax

  adjective

  drastic or severe.

meat ax

¹ American  

noun

1. cleaver.

2. Informal. a drastic or ruthless procedure or approach, especially for reducing or trimming something, as expenditures.

   The committee used a meat ax on the recreation budget.

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meat-ax ² American  

[meet-aks] / ˈmitˌæks /

adjective

Informal.

1. drastic or severe.

   meat-ax defense cuts.

2. favoring or advocating drastic reductions.

   a meat-ax approach to the budget.

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Etymology

Origin of meat ax

First recorded in 1825–35

Example Sentences

The declaration hit Capitol Hill as yet another bolt from the gods — a surprise attack from a mercurial lawmaker who, to some colleagues, has randomly swung a meat ax at their policy agenda.

From Washington Post • Oct. 26, 2021

Instead, Disney’s misconceived live-action remake of the studio’s 1992 animated classic offers the audience overstuffed musical-production numbers that look like they’ve been edited with a meat ax.

From Seattle Times • May 22, 2019

That separate agreement drives a stake into White House promises last year to take a meat ax to domestic agencies and eventually bring the budget back into the black.

From Washington Times • Feb. 11, 2018

On his final flight overseas, aides gave him a plastic meat ax to commemorate his time in office.

From Reuters • Feb. 14, 2013

And so he dreamed that night that he was an assistant presiding genius of the great pig Golgotha, where Phineas Forbes was the monarch of the meat ax.

From A Fascinating Traitor An Anglo-Indian Story by Savage, Richard