From Middle English ax, axe, ex, from Old English æx, from Proto-West Germanic *akusi, from Proto-Germanic *akwisī, probably from a Proto-Indo-European *h₂egʷsih₂, from *h₂eḱ-.

• enPR: ăks, IPA: /æks/

axe (plural axes)

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.

   Synonyms: chop, pink slip, sack, boot

   His girlfriend/boss/schoolmaster gave him the axe.

4. (figurative) A drastic reduction or cutback.

   the Beeching axe

5. (slang, music) A gigging musician's particular instrument, especially a guitar in rock music or a saxophone in jazz.
6. (finance) 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.

• French: hache, cognée
• German: Axt
• Italian: ascia, accetta, scure, mannaia
• Portuguese: machado
• Russian: топо́р
• Spanish: hacha

• French: hache
• German: Streitaxt
• Italian: ascia
• Portuguese: machado
• Russian: топо́р
• Spanish: hacha

• French: couperet
• German: Korb, Laufpass
• Italian: taglio, scarto
• Russian: отка́з

• French: gratte

axe (axes, present participle axing; simple past and past participle axed)

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

   Synonyms: downsize, fire, lay off, Thesaurus:lay off

   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.

• Russian: руби́ть

axe (plural axes)

1. (archaic) The axle of a wheel.

axe (axes, present participle axing; simple past and past participle axed)

1. To furnish with an axle.

From Old English axian; see ax for more.

axe (axes, present participle axing; simple past and past participle axed)

1. (now, obsolete, outside, dialects, especially, AAVE) Alternative form of ask
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC ↗, The Gospell off S. Mathew vij:[7], folio ix, recto ↗:

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

Ultimately derived from cel-bry-pro *Uɨsk, a river name perhaps originally meaning "abundant in fish".

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