AXE, a tool or weapon, taking various shapes, but, when not compounded with some distinguishing word (e.g., in "pick-axe") generally meaning an edged head fixed upon a handle for A "hatchet" is a small sort of axe. In O.E. the word was aex.
In British politics, the word "axe" came, after the World War, to be applied to efforts to reduce public expenditure.