Word.ws English Dictionary

took up the hatchet

took up the hatchet is the simple past of take up the hatchet.

Meaning of take up the hatchet

Verb

take up the hatchet (third-person singular simple present takes up the hatchet, present participle taking up the hatchet, simple past took up the hatchet, past participle taken up the hatchet)

  1. (archaic, idiomatic) To declare war or go to war.

Questions about took up the hatchet

What is took up the hatchet the simple past of?
Took up the hatchet is the simple past of take up the hatchet.

Words near took up the hatchet in the dictionary

  1. took up residence
  2. took up the cudgel for
  3. took up the cudgels
  4. took up the gantlet
  5. took up the gauntlet
  6. took up the hatchet
  7. took up the mantle
  8. took up the slack
  9. took up with
  10. took upon oneself
  11. took water

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: took up the hatchet (page history and authors); take up the hatchet (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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