axe to grind

an ax(e) to grind

1. A complaint or dispute that one feels compelled to discuss. I think the boss has a bit of an axe to grind with you over the way the account was handled.
2. A personal motivation or selfish reason for saying or doing something. It was boy's-club attitudes like yours that made my time at school a living hell, so yeah, I have a bit of an ax to grind. I don't have an axe to grind here—I just want to know the truth.
See also: grind
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

axe to grind

A selfish or ulterior aim: He claimed to be disinterested, but I knew he had an axe to grind.
See also: axe, grind
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
See also:
  • ax to grind
  • an ax(e) to grind
  • have an ax to grind
  • have an ax(e) to grind
  • have an axe to grind
  • no ax(e) to grind
  • torn
  • an axe hanging over someone
  • ax
  • an ax(e) hanging over (someone or something)
References in periodicals archive
"My understanding is that it is not a balanced and objective investigation into anti-Semitism it is a very partial view from a few members of staff who have a political axe to grind."
"The experience I gained as a manager has stood me in good stead to go on and do better things, so I have no axe to grind with Blackpool."
I have no axe to grind. I just want my grandchildren to live in a town of today that they are proud of, not one that can only hark to the past.
I still love the idea of the iPod, but I have no particular axe to grind. Mac vs.
We are in one of those all-too-common periods in which the automobile is a target for everyone with an axe to grind. Vehicles are: too large, too powerful, inefficient, unsafe, heavy, the reason for war, the cause of global warming, and implicated in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, the death of the Lindbergh baby, post-teen acne, and flatulence--especially flatulence.
The media has portrayed them as bitter enemies, but David Walentas, president of Two Trees Management, maintains that he has no axe to grind with developer Shaya Boymelgreen.
This would sound extraordinary, and possibly fantastical, were it not for the fact that the financial models have been checked by professionals with no aesthetic axe to grind.
Laura Caldwell definitely has an axe to grind with a particular power player in her city.
Hamachek keeps his tale tongue-in-cheek so that he has no apparent axe to grind, but still gives credence to cutthroats.
I speak as a former permit-holder and amateur jockey with no axe to grind against those who run racing.
But although he maintains he has no axe to grind with Pompey chairman Milan Mandaric, he is steeling himself for a backlash from the home fans.
Communicators need to keep their ears to the ground, visit those sites that typically attract people who have an axe to grind, and respond or get in on the discussion.
Ms Hattatt is not a union activist with a political axe to grind. She is not an embittered teacher fed up with the daily hassles of her profession.
Could it be that Berlet has an ideological axe to grind -- an axe that fits the Monitor's own ideological agenda?
I have no axe to grind. I made the earlier predictions because the findings were very negative.