hatchet

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: hatch=et

CIDE DICTIONARY

hatchet, n. [F. hachette, dim. of hache ax. See 1st Hatch, Hash.].

•  A small ax with a short handle, to be used with one hand.  [1913 Webster]
•  Specifically, a tomahawk.  [1913 Webster]

  "Buried was the bloody hatchet."  [1913 Webster]

hatchet face, a thin, sharp face, like the edge of a hatchet; hence: hatchet-faced, sharp-visaged. Dryden. -- To bury the hatchet, to make peace or become reconciled. -- To take up the hatchet, to make or declare war. The last two phrases are derived from the practice of the American Indians.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

hatchet, n. a light short-handled axe.

Idiom

hatchet-faced colloq. sharp-featured or grim-looking. hatchet job colloq. a fierce verbal attack on a person, esp. in print. hatchet man colloq.
1 a hired killer.
2 a person employed to carry out a hatchet job.

Etymology

ME f. OF hachette dimin. of hache axe f. med.L hapia f. Gmc

DEVIL DICTIONARY

hatchet

n. A young axe, known among Indians as a Thomashawk.

"O bury the hatchet, irascible Red,
For peace is a blessing," the White Man said.
The Savage concurred, and that weapon interred,
With imposing rites, in the White Man's head.
John Lukkus

THESAURUS

hatchet

adz, ax, battle-ax, bread knife, bushwhacker, butcher knife, carving knife, chaser, chisel, cleaver, clipper, clippers, dagger, gouge, hack, halberd, hoe, hunting knife, jackknife, knife, lance, lancet, letter-opener, machete, mattock, nippers, paper cutter, paper knife, paring knife, penknife, pick, pickax, plowshare, poleax, razor, razor blade, saw knife, sax, scalpel, scissors, scoop, scraper, scuffle hoe, scythe, share, shears, sheath knife, sickle, sidecutters, snips, spear, spokeshave, surgical knife, sword, table knife, tomahawk, wedge

ROGET THESAURUS

hatchet

Sharpness

N sharpness, acuity, acumination, spinosity, point, spike, spine, spicule, spiculum, needle, hypodermic needle, tack, nail, pin, prick, prickle, spur, rowel, barb, spit, cusp, horn, antler, snag, tag thorn, bristle, Adam's needle, bear grass, tine, yucca, nib, tooth, tusk, spoke, cog, ratchet, crag, crest, arete, cone peak, sugar loaf, pike, aiguille, spire, pyramid, steeple, beard, chevaux de frise, porcupine, hedgehog, brier, bramble, thistle, comb, awn, beggar's lice, bur, burr, catchweed, cleavers, clivers, goose, grass, hairif, hariff, flax comb, hackle, hatchel, heckle, wedge, knife edge, cutting edge, blade, edge tool, cutlery, knife, penknife, whittle, razor, razor blade, safety razor, straight razor, electric razor, scalpel, bistoury, lancet, plowshare, coulter, colter, hatchet, ax, pickax, mattock, pick, adze, gill, billhook, cleaver, cutter, scythe, sickle, scissors, shears, pruning shears, cutters, wire cutters, nail clipper, paper cutter, sword, bodkin, belduque, bowie knife, paring knife, bushwhacker, drawing knife, drawing shave, microtome, chisel, screwdriver blade, flint blade, guillotine, sharpener, hone, strop, grindstone, whetstone, novaculite, steel, emery, sharp, keen, acute, acicular, aciform, aculeated, acuminated, pointed, tapering, conical, pyramidal, mucronate, mucronated, spindle shaped, needle shaped, spiked, spiky, ensiform, peaked, salient, cusped, cuspidate, cuspidated, cornute, cornuted, cornicultate, prickly, spiny, spinous, spicular, thorny, bristling, muricated, pectinated, studded, thistly, briary, craggy, snaggy, digitated, two-edged, fusiform, dentiform, denticulated, toothed, odontoid, starlike, stellated, stelliform, sagittate, sagittiform, arrowheaded, arrowy, barbed, spurred, acinaciform, apiculate, apiculated, aristate, awned, awny, bearded, calamiform, cone-shaped, coniform, crestate, echinate, gladiate, lanceolate, lanciform, awl, awl-shaped, lance-shaped, awl- shaped, scimitar-shaped, sword-shaped, setarious, spinuliferous, subulate, tetrahedral, xiphoid, cutting, sharp edged, knife edged, sharp as a razor, keen as a razor, sharp as a needle, sharp as a tack, sharpened, set.