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axe

Pronunciation: /aks/

(US also ax)
Translate axe | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of axe

noun

  • 1a tool used for chopping wood, typically of iron with a steel edge and wooden handle: I started swinging the axe at the lumps of driftwood [as modifier]:an axe blade
  • a measure intended to reduce costs drastically, especially one involving redundancies:thirty staff are facing the axe at the Royal Infirmary
  • 2 informal a musical instrument used in popular music or jazz, especially a guitar or (originally) a saxophone.

verb

[with object]
  • 1end, cancel, or dismiss suddenly and ruthlessly:the company is axing 125 jobs 2,500 staff were axed as part of a rationalization programme
  • reduce (costs or services) drastically:the Chancellor warned the cabinet to axe public spending
  • 2cut or strike with an axe, especially violently or destructively: the mahogany panelling had been axed

Phrases

have an axe to grind

have a private reason for doing or being involved in something: he has no political axe to grind

Origin:

Old English æx, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch aaks and German Axt

axe in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of axe in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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