axe

noun

1. A tool for felling trees or chopping wood etc. consisting of a heavy head flattened to a blade on one side, and a handle attached to it.
2. An ancient weapon consisting of a head that has one or two blades and a long handle.
3. (informal)A dismissal or rejection.

   “His girlfriend/boss/schoolmaster gave him the axe.”

4. (figuratively)A drastic reduction or cutback.

   “the Beeching Axe”

   “The tractor plant is slated for the axe.”

   “I had a job in the great North Woods Workin' as a cook for a spell But I never did like it all that much And one day the axe just fell”

   “But P'u-yi was nothing if not soft when it came to family, and he arranged for the young man to live with his uncle Beitzu P'u-hsiu in P'u-yi's old house in T'ien-ching. So Yü-t'ai was well clear of Ch'ang-ch'un when the axe fell in 1945.”

   “Back in 1963, how could Beeching advocate closure of the electrified Liverpool-Southport commuter route, just because its books didn't balance? The busy North London line between Richmond and Broad Street was also for the axe, as was Leeds to Bradford and Ilkley.”

5. (slang)A gigging musician's particular instrument, especially a guitar in rock music or a saxophone in jazz.
6. A position, interest, or reason in buying and selling stock, often with ulterior motives.

   “A financial dealer has an axe in a stock that his buyers don't know about, giving him an advantage in making the most profit.”

7. (archaic)The axle of a wheel.

verb

1. (transitive)To fell or chop with an axe.
2. (figuratively, transitive)To lay off, terminate or drastically reduce, especially in a rough or ruthless manner; to cancel.

   “The government announced its plans to axe public spending.”

   “The broadcaster axed the series because far fewer people than expected watched it.”

   “He got axed in the last round of firings.”

   “On Wednesday, GSMA, which organises the congress, was forced to admit it would have to axe this year’s event after more than 40 companies pulled out citing health and safety concerns.”

   “The Department for Transport axed TfL's central grant in 2015, when Boris Johnson was London mayor.”

3. To furnish with an axle.
4. (alt-of, alternative, dialectal, obsolete)Alternative form of ask.

   “Axe and it ſhalbe geven you. Seke and ye ſhall fynd / Knocke and it ſhalbe opened vnto you.”

   “I axe you—have I said one word about that little matter to-day?”

   “I axe him to sit down and drink some of my wine, but he says no thanks, he just come to axe me a question.”

name

1. A river in Dorset, Somerset, and east Devon, England, which flows into Lyme Bay at Seaton.
2. A river in Somerset, England, which flows into the Bristol Channel at Weston-super-Mare.