hatchet

American  

[hach-it] / ˈhætʃ ɪt /

noun

• hatchets
  plural

1. 

   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.

2. a tomahawk.

3. hatchetfish.

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verb (used with object)

1. to cut, destroy, kill, etc., with a hatchet.

2. to abridge, delete, excise, etc..

   The network censor may hatchet 30 minutes from the script.

idioms

1. bury the hatchet, to become reconciled or reunited; make peace.

2. 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.

hatchet British  

/ ˈhætʃɪt /

noun

1. a short axe used for chopping wood, etc

2. a tomahawk

3. (modifier) of narrow dimensions and sharp features

   a hatchet face

4. to cease hostilities and become reconciled

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hatchet More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing hatchet

• bury the hatchet

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• hatchet-like
  adjective
• hatchetlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• hatchets
  plural

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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)

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hatchet hatchets

No media hatchet man could come up with a more damaging word to describe what happened out there.

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 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

“He fought the bear off with a hatchet, and ultimately they both got away,” Collins said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2026

Wang delivered spectacularly, becoming the leader’s indispensable hatchet man.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026

After he’d been rescued and gone home, his mother had put the hatchet in a glass case in the living room, where she kept the china handed down by her grandmother.

From "The River" by Gary Paulsen

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

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

Yet despite many statements over the years that old hatchets have been buried — the intraband litigation file goes back decades — the Beach Boys are not quite united.

From New York Times ● Sep. 2, 2021

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

You could buy Valentines in November at Lee Chong’s, shamrocks, hatchets and paper cherry trees in August.

From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck

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Related Words

• machete

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