axe

get the axe

1. if a person gets the axe, they lose their job. Senior staff are more likely to get the axe because the company can't afford their high salaries.

2. if a plan or a service gets the axe, it is stopped. My research project was the first thing to be given the ax when the new boss took over.

have an axe to grind

to have a strong opinion about something, which you are often trying to persuade other people is correct. As a novelist, he has no political axe to grind.

See also: grind