hatchet

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.

to agree that you will forget about arguments and disagreements with someone The two teammates hope to bury the hatchet long enough to win the championship.

to forget about arguments and disagreements with someone and to become friends with them again It had been over a year since the incident and I thought it was time we buried the hatchet.

strong and unfair criticism of someone or something, especially on television or in a newspaper She did a real hatchet job on his latest novel in one of the Sunday papers.

someone who is employed by an organization to make changes that people do not like The hatchet man is called in whenever a company needs to reduce its staff.

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.

To stop fighting; resolve a quarrel.

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 . . .”