Hatchet Meaning
/ˈhæt͡ʃɪt/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA small, light axe with a short handle; a tomahawk.
nounBelligerence, animosity; harsh criticism.
Sentence Examples
The owners brought in a hatchet man to fire all the union sympathizers.
Isn't it about time you guys buried the hatchet and let bygones be bygones?
He used a small hatchet to chop wood for the campfire.
CEFR Practice Quiz
He used a sharp ____ to chop the firewood into small pieces.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The woodsman used a sharp ____ to chop some small branches for the evening campfire.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English hachet, a borrowing from Old French hachete, diminutive of hache (“axe”), from Vulgar Latin *happia, from Frankish *happjā, from Proto-Germanic *hapjǭ, *habjǭ (“knife”), from Proto-Indo-European *kop- (“to strike, to beat”). Cognate with Old High German happa, heppa, habba (“reaper, sickle”), German Hippe (“billhook”), Dutch heep, hiep (“billhook”), and Ancient Greek κοπίς (kopís). Mostly displaced native Old English handæx, whence Modern English hand axe.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"“It must be admitted, Nick, you are a very literal logician—‘dog won't eat dog,’ is our English saying. Still the Yankee will fight the Yengeese, it would seem. In a word, the Great Father, in England, has raised the hatchet against his American children.”"
— 1843, [James Fenimore Cooper], Wyandotté, or The Hutted Knoll. […], volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea and Blanchard, →OCLC, page 117:
"Buried was the bloody hatchet, / Buried was the dreadful war-club, / Buried were all warlike weapons, / And the war-cry was forgotten."
— 1855 November 10, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Blessing the Corn-fields”, in The Song of Hiawatha, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 175:
"The fellow was armed with a stone-shod spear, a stone knife and a hatchet. In his black hair were several gay-colored feathers."
— 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter III, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, part I, number 11, New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, February 1927, →OCLC, book I, page 1158:
"“Dat true as missionary! What a soldier do, cap'in, if so much peace? Warrior love a war-path.”
“I wish it were not so, Nick. But my hatchet is buried, I hope, for ever.”"
— 1843, [James Fenimore Cooper], Wyandotté, or The Hutted Knoll. […], volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea and Blanchard, →OCLC, page 42:
"The savagery with which Michael Hofmann can wield a hatchet has earned him unlikely fans outside the literary circuit. A recent issue of Viz ran a cartoon of the critic, poet and translator urinating all over a phone booth, while two donnish FR Leavis types nodded appreciatively from a safe distance."
— 2016 April 9, Philip Oltermann, “Michael Hofmann: ‘English is basically a trap. It’s almost a language for spies’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
He used a sharp ____ to chop the firewood into small pieces.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The woodsman used a sharp ____ to chop some small branches for the evening campfire.