variants
or ax
plural axes
1
: a cutting tool that consists of a heavy edged head fixed to a handle with the edge parallel to the handle and that is used especially for felling trees and chopping and splitting wood
2
: a hammer with a sharp edge for dressing (see dress entry 1 sense 6e) or spalling stone
3
informal
a
: removal from office or release from employment : dismissal
—usually used with the
Employees with poor evaluations got the axe.
Trump quickly gave him the ax [=fired him] for his incompetence.—
Laura Petrecca
Laura Petrecca
b
: abrupt elimination or severe reduction of something
Unlimited expense accounts, signing bonuses, and office plants—all are getting the ax [=being cut or eliminated] thanks to corporate cost-cutting measures.—Amanda Hinnant
Amanda HinnantNo party was brave enough to offend its supporters by taking an axe to [=severely reducing] expenditure.—The Economist
The Economist4
slang
: any of several musical instruments (such as a guitar or a saxophone)
variants
or ax
axed; axing; axes
1
a
: to shape, dress (see dress entry 1 sense 6e), or trim with an axe
axe stone
b
: to chop, split, or sever with an axe
axe branches from a tree
2
informal
: to remove abruptly (as from employment or from a budget)
The TV program was axed from the new schedule.
Examples of axe in a Sentence
Noun
the company was hemorrhaging money, so 700 employees would soon be given the ax
Verb
The boss told him that he had been axed.
the boss will ax anyone who leaks company secrets
Recent Examples on the Web
Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 10 June 2025
From an axe to a sudsy bar of soap, the thing that appears on each cover is drawn from a story, poem, or essay in the issue and could be recognizable anywhere.
—Kei Lim
june 9, Literary Hub, 9 June 2025
Another prom queen candidate, the drug-dealing bad girl Christy (Ariana Greenblatt), takes an axe to the back.
—Randall Colburn, EW.com, 23 May 2025
Craig experiences that same temporal shift two other times in the film: When staring at a bouquet of Tami’s flowers, and while holding an ancient stone axe Austin has bought online.
—Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 22 May 2025
The move would take an axe to the already limited number of four-star generals and admirals, as there were just 37 such individuals as of 2023.
—Ellen Mitchell, The Hill, 5 May 2025
The final fight takes the Zorin zeppelin to the very highest spans, where Bond and Zorin duke it out with an axe.
—EW.com, 24 May 2025
Her high ribs fan out like sheaves of paper, her torso and belly one smooth undulating plane, a groove running through the center of her like the cut of an axe.
—Lamorna Ash, The Dial, 6 May 2025
But the axe is likely to fall on staff and administrators than on research personnel, all else constant.
—Shivaram Rajgopal, Forbes.com, 17 May 2025
Ross Marchand, Boston Herald, 30 May 2025
Ford recently axed its next-generation electrical architecture due to ballooning costs around the technology.
—Nora Eckert, USA Today, 29 May 2025
According to Reuters, 20,000 jobs were axed, seven factories shut down and no one’s getting raises.
—Josh Max, Forbes.com, 29 May 2025
And while the first season of the show was no slouch in axing its supporting cast at regular intervals, this year’s plot has taken a heavier toll on viewers with an abrupt and brutal end for what people considered to be the star of the show, Pedro Pascal’s Joel Miller.
—Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 27 May 2025
The school also axed the Asian-Pacific Forum Club, The Contemporary Cultural Affairs Seminar Club, The Japanese Forum Club, The Korean-American Relations Seminar, The Latin Cultural Club, The Native American Heritage Forum and The Vietnamese-American Cadet Association.
—Brianna Keilar, CNN Money, 22 May 2025
And Todd Blanche, who has been hired to replace Perlmutter’s boss Carla Hayden as Librarian of Congress (also just axed by Trump), is helping lead the Justice Department’s case against Google over the company’s dominance in search.
—Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 14 May 2025
Microsoft is the latest company to join the wave of AI-era tech layoffs, axing 3% of its workforce — almost 7,000 employees.
—Quartz Staff, Quartz, 13 May 2025
Walmart has also been making some fairly big cuts recently, including axing hundreds of jobs in one of its offices in North Carolina in February.
—Will McCurdy, PC Magazine, 10 May 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
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Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
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Noun
In contrast to the grave with the two females, archaeologists do not believe the man died violently; rather, the axe was likely left as a grave offering.
—Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 10 June 2025
From an axe to a sudsy bar of soap, the thing that appears on each cover is drawn from a story, poem, or essay in the issue and could be recognizable anywhere.
—Kei Lim
june 9, Literary Hub, 9 June 2025
Another prom queen candidate, the drug-dealing bad girl Christy (Ariana Greenblatt), takes an axe to the back.
—Randall Colburn, EW.com, 23 May 2025
Craig experiences that same temporal shift two other times in the film: When staring at a bouquet of Tami’s flowers, and while holding an ancient stone axe Austin has bought online.
—Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 22 May 2025
The move would take an axe to the already limited number of four-star generals and admirals, as there were just 37 such individuals as of 2023.
—Ellen Mitchell, The Hill, 5 May 2025
The final fight takes the Zorin zeppelin to the very highest spans, where Bond and Zorin duke it out with an axe.
—EW.com, 24 May 2025
Her high ribs fan out like sheaves of paper, her torso and belly one smooth undulating plane, a groove running through the center of her like the cut of an axe.
—Lamorna Ash, The Dial, 6 May 2025
But the axe is likely to fall on staff and administrators than on research personnel, all else constant.
—Shivaram Rajgopal, Forbes.com, 17 May 2025
Verb
The Trump administration is laudably committed to rooting out waste across the federal government and axing large and ineffective programs.
—Ross Marchand, Boston Herald, 30 May 2025
Ford recently axed its next-generation electrical architecture due to ballooning costs around the technology.
—Nora Eckert, USA Today, 29 May 2025
According to Reuters, 20,000 jobs were axed, seven factories shut down and no one’s getting raises.
—Josh Max, Forbes.com, 29 May 2025
And while the first season of the show was no slouch in axing its supporting cast at regular intervals, this year’s plot has taken a heavier toll on viewers with an abrupt and brutal end for what people considered to be the star of the show, Pedro Pascal’s Joel Miller.
—Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 27 May 2025
The school also axed the Asian-Pacific Forum Club, The Contemporary Cultural Affairs Seminar Club, The Japanese Forum Club, The Korean-American Relations Seminar, The Latin Cultural Club, The Native American Heritage Forum and The Vietnamese-American Cadet Association.
—Brianna Keilar, CNN Money, 22 May 2025
And Todd Blanche, who has been hired to replace Perlmutter’s boss Carla Hayden as Librarian of Congress (also just axed by Trump), is helping lead the Justice Department’s case against Google over the company’s dominance in search.
—Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 14 May 2025
Microsoft is the latest company to join the wave of AI-era tech layoffs, axing 3% of its workforce — almost 7,000 employees.
—Quartz Staff, Quartz, 13 May 2025
Walmart has also been making some fairly big cuts recently, including axing hundreds of jobs in one of its offices in North Carolina in February.
—Will McCurdy, PC Magazine, 10 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Axe.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/axe. Accessed 15 Jun. 2025.
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