hew down

hew down

To cut something down, typically a tree. A noun or pronoun can be used between "hew" and "down." If we're going to build houses here, then we need to hew down a lot of these trees.
See also: down, hew
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

hew something down

to fell something wooden, usually a tree. We will have to hew most of this forest down. They hewed down the tree.
See also: down, hew
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • ask down
  • bear down
  • chop down
  • chow down
  • chow something down
  • clunk
  • clunk down
  • bolt down
  • clean down
  • brush down
References in classic literature
He left the window when he saw them coming, and drew back into the remotest corner of the cell; but although he returned them no answer, they had a fancy that some one was inside, for they presently set ladders against it, and began to tear away the bars at the casement; not only that, indeed, but with pickaxes to hew down the very stones in the wall.
Barnaby Rudge A Tale Of The Riots Of Eighty
They pull down the piles and palisades; they hew down the barriers with axes.
Ivanhoe
This is straight forward determination to hew down this huge tree of destruction and enemy of peaceful co-existence.
The days of vigilantism are numbered
Del Rio's experience embodies the problems women face in pursuing a career in science or technology: she hew down two part-time jobs and took care of her brother and sister while enrolled fulltime in college.
NSF unveils family-friendly initiative
The latest intention is to hew down a very old yew tree, which his ancestors probably knew, to widen an existing lane.
Flawed voting system makes a mockery of our democracy