hatchet

To make a very critical attack on someone or something, especially through media outlets. The movie critic did a real hatchet job on the new film in this week's paper.

To act or seem as though one is doing something with good or kind intentions when, really, the opposite is true. To "give pap" means for a mother to comfort an infant with her nipple—an intentional juxtaposition with the sharp and dangerous "hatchet." I thought Lauren wanted to be my friend, but then I found out she only invited me to sit at her table to make fun of me. Talk about giving pap with a hatchet!

A very critical attack on someone or something, especially through media outlets. The movie critic did a real hatchet job on the new film in last week's paper.

A person hired by a company to make sweeping changes to save money, usually by reducing staff. We knew our days were numbered when our company brought in a hatchet man to make cuts to the staff.

To make hasty, careless decisions; to discard something after encountering a setback. The image alludes to throwing away the handle ("helve") of a hatchet after the blade has broken off. Come on, I'm sure we can fix it—don't send the helve after the hatchet. My little brother always gives up at the slightest problem, no matter how many times we remind him not to send the helve after the hatchet.

To fight, especially in a violent manner. The feud has lasted for so long that neither family remembers why they took up the hatchet against the other.

Fig. to make peace. Let's stop arguing and bury the hatchet. Tom and I buried the hatchet and we are good friends now.

a man who does the cruel or difficult things for someone else; someone who does someone else's dirty work. He served as the president's hatchet man and ended up doing all the dirty work.

Make peace; settle one's differences. For example, Toward the end of the year, the roommates finally decided to bury the hatchet. Although some believe this term comes from a Native American custom for declaring peace between warring tribes, others say it comes from hang up one's hatchet, a term dating from the early 1300s (well before Columbus landed in the New World). The word bury replaced hang up in the 1700s.

When people who have argued bury the hatchet, they agree to forget their argument and become friends again. Note: A hatchet is a small axe. They had finally buried the hatchet after their falling-out. Note: In the past, when Native American tribes made peace after fighting each other, it was traditional for each tribe to bury a tomahawk or small axe, as a sign of peace.

A hatchet job is strong, unfair, often public criticism which harms someone's reputation. Note: A hatchet is a small axe. The reporter set out to do a hatchet job on him and succeeded. The rest of the article is basically a hatchet job on the minister. Note: This expression may relate to violent gang warfare in the United States during the early part of the 20th century. See explanation at `a hatchet man'.

A hatchet man is someone who is employed to do unpleasant tasks, especially to get rid of jobs in a company. Note: A hatchet is a small axe. Hall, they reckoned, was a hatchet man, out to shred the workforce and totally crush the union. Note: A woman who does a similar job can be called a hatchet woman. She had a reputation for being a ruthless hatchet woman. Note: This expression is usually used to show disapproval. Note: This expression may relate to violent gang warfare in the United States during the early part of the 20th century. Gangs often hired an assassin or `hatchet man' to hack an important member of a rival gang to death with a hatchet. This work was known as a `hatchet job'.

To stop fighting; resolve a quarrel.

To make peace or call a truce. Some North American Indian tribes declared peace by burying a tomahawk, a custom described by Samuel Sewell in 1680 and referred to again in subsequent accounts of the American colonies. The term appears in Longfellow’s famous poem, “Hiawatha,” and by the end of the nineteenth century was a cliché for peacemaking on both sides of the Atlantic.

A person who performs nasty tasks for his or her superior, such as firing subordinates, attacking the character of a political opponent, spreading rumors about a competitor, or the like. The term, so used since the 1940s, was applied particularly in politics and journalism, and the work so performed was also called a hatchet job. The magazine Newsweek had it on July 27, 1968: “He’ll be the hatchet man . . . just like Nixon was in 1952.” It also is used in other contexts, for example, “This critic did a real hatchet job on her concert.” A related term is character assassination, dating from about 1950, but it is no longer heard as often.

To make peace, to settle differences. The phrase comes from the practice among native American and Canadian tribes literally to bury a war axe at the end of hostilities. An 1680 report describes European colonists in what became New England: “Meeting wth ye Sachem [the tribal leaders] the[y] came to an agreemt and buried two Axes in ye Ground; which ceremony to them is more significant & binding than all Articles of Peace . . .”