- hatchet man
- noun Date: 1880 1. one hired for murder, coercion, or attack 2. a. a writer specializing in invective b. a person hired to perform underhanded or unscrupulous tasks (as ruin reputations)
New Collegiate Dictionary. 2001.
hatchet man
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hatchet man — {n.}, {colloquial} 1. A politician or newspaper columnist whose job is to write and say unfavorable things about the opposition. * /Bill Lerner is the hatchet man for the Mayor s Party; he smears all the other candidates regularly./ 2. An… … Dictionary of American idioms
hatchet man — {n.}, {colloquial} 1. A politician or newspaper columnist whose job is to write and say unfavorable things about the opposition. * /Bill Lerner is the hatchet man for the Mayor s Party; he smears all the other candidates regularly./ 2. An… … Dictionary of American idioms
hatchet man — hat‧chet man [ˈhætʆt ˌmæn] noun hatchet men PLURALFORM [countable] informal HUMAN RESOURCES someone employed to make unpopular changes in an organization, especially ones which involve people losing their jobs * * * hatchet man UK US noun [C]… … Financial and business terms
hatchet man — hatchet men N COUNT (disapproval) You can refer to someone who makes changes in an organization by getting rid of lots of people as a hatchet man, especially if you think they do so in an unnecessarily harsh way. [INFORMAL] They reckoned he was a … English dictionary
hatchet man — n. 1. A person hired to murder or physically attack another; a hit man. [PJC] 2. A person who deliberately tries to ruin the reputation of another, often unscrupulously, by slander or other malicious communication, often with a political motive,… … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
hatchet man — hatchet .man n informal someone who is employed to make unpopular changes in an organization … Dictionary of contemporary English
hatchet man — hatchet ,man noun count INFORMAL 1. ) someone employed by a company to do a job that is not popular with other people, especially to get rid of members of the staff 2. ) a professional murderer … Usage of the words and phrases in modern English
hatchet man — ► NOUN informal 1) a person employed to carry out controversial or disagreeable tasks. 2) a harsh critic … English terms dictionary
hatchet man — ☆ hatchet man n. Informal 1. a person hired to commit murder 2. any person assigned by another to carry out disagreeable or unscrupulous tasks 3. a malicious or harsh writer or critic, as one who attempts to destroy a reputation … English World dictionary
hatchet man — noun 1. a professional killer • Syn: ↑iceman • Hypernyms: ↑murderer, ↑liquidator, ↑manslayer 2. one whose job it is to execute unpleasant tasks for a superior • Syn: ↑enforcer … Useful english dictionary
Hatchet man — A Hatchet man can be:Originally a pioneer or axeman serving in a US military unit.Oxford English Dictionary retrieved April 17 2008.] Towards the end of the nineteenth century the phrase was used to describe a Chinese assassin who carried a… … Wikipedia
