Word.ws English Dictionary

take an axe to

take an axe to verb: to boldly demolish, delete, or discontinue (something).

Verb

take an axe to (third-person singular simple present takes an axe to, present participle taking an axe to, simple past took an axe to, past participle taken an axe to)

  1. (idiomatic) To boldly demolish, delete, or discontinue (something).
    • How much you wanna bet on whether they're hatching secret plans to take an axe to the entire Social Security system?
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: to boldly and forcefully demolish, cut up, cut down, etc.
    • The firefighters were not messing around — they took an axe to the locked door.

Forms of take an axe to

third-person singular presenttakes an axe to
present participletaking an axe to
pasttook an axe to
past participletaken an axe to

Questions about take an axe to

What does take an axe to mean?
Take an axe to means to boldly demolish, delete, or discontinue (something).
What part of speech is take an axe to?
Take an axe to is a verb.
What is the past tense of take an axe to?
The past tense of take an axe to is took an axe to.

Words near take an axe to in the dictionary

  1. take after
  2. take against
  3. take aim
  4. take air
  5. take aloft
  6. take an axe to
  7. take an l
  8. take apart
  9. take at advantage
  10. take at face value
  11. take attendance

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take an axe to (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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