Informal. to dismiss, restrict, or destroy brutally, as if with an ax: The main office axed those in the field who didn't meet their quota. Congress axed the budget. Also, axe.

Idiom

have an ax to grind, to have a personal or selfish motive: His interest may be sincere, but I suspect he has an ax to grind.

Origin:
before 1000; Middle English; ax(e), ex(e), Old English æx, æces; akin to Gothic aquizi, Old Norse øx, ǫx, Old High German acc(h)us, a(c)kus (German Axt), Middle High German plural exa < Germanic *akwiz-, akuz-, aksi- ≪ *ákəs, áks-; Latin ascia (< *acsiā), Greek axī́nē; < Indo-European *ag-s-

Related forms

ax·like, adjective

ax.

Can be confused: acts, ask, axe.

noun, plural ax·es

[ak-seez] .

the line about which a rotating body, such as the earth, turns.

Mathematics.

a central line that bisects a two-dimensional body or figure.

a line about which a three-dimensional body or figure is symmetrical.

Anatomy.

a central or principal structure, about which something turns or is arranged: the skeletal axis.

the second cervical vertebra.

Botany. the longitudinal support on which organs or parts are arranged; the stem and root; the central line of any body.

Analytic Geometry. any line used as a fixed reference in conjunction with one or more other references for determining the position of a point or of a series of points forming a curve or a surface. Compare x-axis, y-axis.

EXPAND

Crystallography. crystallographic axis.

Aeronautics. any one of three lines defining the attitude of an airplane, one being generally determined by the direction of forward motion and the other two at right angles to it and to each other.

Fine Arts. an imaginary line, in a given formal structure, about which a form, area, or plane is organized.

an alliance of two or more nations to coordinate their foreign and military policies, and to draw in with them a group of dependent or supporting powers.

10.

the Axis, (in World War II) Germany, Italy, and Japan, often with Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania.

11.

a principal line of development, movement, direction, etc.

COLLAPSE

Origin:
1540–50; < Latin axis an axletree, axle, axis. See axi-

Related forms

ax·ised

[ak-sist] , adjective

un·ax·ised, adjective

noun, plural ax·is·es.

axis deer.

Origin:
1595–1605; < Latin axis a wild animal of India (Pliny)

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To axes

Collins

World English Dictionary

axes¹ (ˈæksiːz)

—n
	the plural of axis

axes² (ˈæksɪz)

—n
	the plural of axe

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

O.E. æces (Northumbrian acas), later æx, from P.Gmc. *akusjo (cf. O.S. accus, O.N. ex, O.Fris. axe, Ger. Axt, Goth. aqizi), from PIE *agw(e)si- (cf. Gk. axine, L. ascia). Meaning "musical instrument" is 1955, originally jazz slang for the saxophone; rock slang for "guitar" dates to 1967.

EXPAND

The ax in fig. sense of cutting of anything (expenses, workers, etc.), especially as a cost-saving measure, is from 1922, probably from the notion of the headman's literal axe (itself attested from mid-15c.). To have an axe to grind is from an 1815 essay by U.S. newspaper editor Charles Miner (17801865) in which a man flatters a boy and gets him to do the chore of axe-grinding for him, then leaves without offering thanks or recompense. Misattributed to Benjamin Franklin in Weekley, OED print edition, and many other sources.

"The spelling ax is better on every ground, of etymology, phonology, and analogy, than axe, which became prevalent during the 19th century; but it is now disused in Britain." [OED]

axis

1540s, "imaginary straight line around which a body (such as the Earth) rotates," from L. axis "axle, pivot, axis of the earth or sky," from PIE *aks- "axis" (cf. O.E. eax, O.H.G. ahsa "axle;" Gk. axon "axis, axle, wagon;" Skt. aksah "an axle, axis, beam of a balance;" Lith. aszis "axle"). Fig. sense

in world history of "alliance between Germany and Italy" (later extended to include Japan) is from 1936. Original reference was to a "Rome-Berlin axis" in central Europe. The word later was used in ref. to a London-Washington axis (World War II) and a Moscow-Peking axis (early Cold War).

axe

see ax.

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

ax abbr.
axis

axis ax·is (āk'sĭs)
n. pl. ax·es (āk'sēz')

A real or imaginary straight line about which a body or geometric object rotates or may be conceived to rotate.
A center line to which parts of a structure or body may be referred.
The second cervical vertebra. Also called epistropheus, vertebra dentata.
An artery that divides into many branches at its origin.

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

axis (āk'sĭs) Pronunciation Key
Plural axes (āk'sēz')

An imaginary line around which an object rotates. In a rotating sphere, such as the Earth and other planets, the two ends of the axis are called poles. The 23.45° tilt of the Earth's axis with respect to the plane of its orbit around the Sun causes the Northern and Southern Hemispheres to point toward and away from the Sun at different times of the year, creating seasonal patterns of weather and climate. Other planets in the solar system have widely varying tilts to their axes, ranging from near 0° for Mercury to 177° for Venus.
Mathematics
1. A line, ray, or line segment with respect to which a figure or object is symmetrical.
2. A reference line from which distances or angles are measured in a coordinate system, such as the x-axis and y-axis in the Cartesian coordinate system.
Anatomy The second cervical vertebra, which serves as a pivot for the head.
Botany The main stem or central part of a plant or plant part, about which other plant parts, such as branches or leaflets, are arranged.

axial adjective

American Heritage

Cultural Dictionary

axis definition

In geometry, a straight line about which an object may rotate or that divides an object into symmetrical halves.

Note: The axis of the Earth is an imaginary line drawn through the North Pole and the South Pole.

Slang Dictionary

axe definition

n.
a musical instrument. (Originally a saxophone.) : Get out your axe and let's jam.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Matching Quote

"It must be confessed that the Pilgrims possessed but few of the qualities of the modern pioneer. They were not the ancestors of the American backwoodsmen. They did not go at once into the woods with their axes. They were a family and church, and were more anxious to keep together, though it were on the sand, than to colonize a New World.... It is true they were busy at first about their building, and were hindered in that by much foul weather; but a party of emigrants to California or Oregon, with no less work on their hands,—and more hostile Indians,—would do as much exploring the first afternoon, and the Sieur de Champlain would have sought an interview with the savages, and examined the country as far as the Connecticut, and made a map of it, before Billington had climbed his tree.... Nevertheless, the Pilgrims were pioneers, and the ancestors of pioneers, in a far grander enterprise."

-Henry David Thoreau

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