axe

Từ điển Oxford Advanced Learner 8th

axe [axe axes axed axing] noun, verb BrE [æks] NAmE [æks]
noun (especially BrE) (US usually ax)
1. a tool with a wooden handle and a heavy metal blade, used for chopping wood, cutting down trees, etc.
see also ↑battleaxe, ↑ice axe, ↑pickaxe
2. the axesingular (informal) (often used in newspapers)if sb gets the axe, they lose their job; if an institution or a project gets the axe, it is closed or stopped, usually because of a lack of money
•Up to 300 workers are facing the axe at a struggling Merseyside firm.
•Patients are delighted their local hospital has been saved from the axe.
•Protesters, anxious over the spending cuts, urged councillors to think again before wielding the axe.

Word Origin:
Old English æx, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch aaks and German Axt.

Example Bank:
•His prime-time TV show is likely to get the axe.
•The executioner's axe fell.
•We were expecting bad news but had no idea where the axe would fall.
•Wielding the axe on the prison plan would be one way of saving money.
•With a few swift blows of the axe, she severed the cable.
•to chop a tree down with an axe
Idiom: ↑have an axe to grind
 
verb (BrE) (US ax)often passive
1. ~ sth (informal) (often used in newspapers)to get rid of a service, system, etc. or to reduce the money spent on it by a large amount
•Other less profitable services are to be axed later this year.
2. ~ sb (informal) (often used in newspapers)to remove sb from their job
•Jones has been axed from the team.
3. ~ sb to kill sb with an ↑axe
Verb forms:

Word Origin:
Old English æx, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch aaks and German Axt.

Example Bank:
•2 500 employees were axed as part of a rationalization program.
•300 jobs are to be axed at a local chemical works.
•The firm has already cut staff by 7 000 and is set to axe a further 4 000 jobs this year.
•The series was axed after only six episodes.