0 a small axe (= tool with a blade that cuts when you hit things with it) --
1 a tool with a blade that cuts which is attached to a short handle; a small ax --
He is a hatchet man on some things.
I have already referred to the fact that he is not a hatchet man by his background.
Instead of hatchets being swung around in all directions, let us go in for a policy of hatchet-burying.
It would also mean taking a hatchet to the industry so brutally that we should be dependent on imports to an unacceptable degree.
No doubt we may be able to unearth some other hatchets to take its place.
It is taking a hatchet to the machinery of government; letting one lot fall here and another there, without a rational analysis of the need.
In today's debate some political hatchets have been buried, and that is very comforting.
It was carved up with the help of a hatchet man.
