"hatchet man" meaning in English

See hatchet man in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-hatchet man.ogg [Australia] Forms: hatchet men [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun|hatchet men}} hatchet man (plural hatchet men)
  1. A male professional killer or gunman. Categories (topical): Murder, People Synonyms (professional killer): assassin, hitman Translations (professional killer): tueur à gages [masculine] (French), sicario (Italian), ки́ллер (kíller) (Russian), sicario (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-hatchet_man-en-noun-cwdgpdK8 Disambiguation of Murder: 77 11 12 Disambiguation of People: 61 26 12 Categories (other): English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 29 32 39 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 31 36 33 Disambiguation of 'professional killer': 88 7 5 Disambiguation of 'professional killer': 88 7 5
  2. (US, historical) A male hatchet-wielding participant in a Chinese-American tong war. Tags: US, historical Synonyms: boo how doy Translations (hatchet-wielding participant in a tong war): 斧頭仔 (Taishanese), 斧头仔 (bu² heu³ doi²) (Taishanese)
    Sense id: en-hatchet_man-en-noun-H2tdMrmk Categories (other): American English, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 29 32 39 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 31 36 33 Disambiguation of 'hatchet-wielding participant in a tong war': 4 91 5
  3. (colloquial, idiomatic) A male who carries out brutal and unpleasant duties on behalf of another, such as firing dead wood employees. Tags: colloquial, idiomatic Translations (man who carries unpleasant duties on behalf of another): porte-flingue [masculine] (French)
    Sense id: en-hatchet_man-en-noun-LrLXvXmU Categories (other): English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 29 32 39 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 31 36 33 Disambiguation of 'man who carries unpleasant duties on behalf of another': 7 3 90
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: hatchetman Related terms: chainsaw consultant

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for hatchet man meaning in English (4.9kB)

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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "48 42 10",
      "word": "chainsaw consultant"
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          "_dis": "77 11 12",
          "kind": "topical",
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          "name": "Murder",
          "orig": "en:Murder",
          "parents": [
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            "Death",
            "Violence",
            "Criminal law",
            "Society",
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The crime lord dispatched his favorite hatchet man to make sure the witness would not testify."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A male professional killer or gunman."
      ],
      "id": "en-hatchet_man-en-noun-cwdgpdK8",
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          "_dis1": "88 7 5",
          "sense": "professional killer",
          "word": "assassin"
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          "_dis1": "88 7 5",
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          "_dis1": "88 7 5",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "professional killer",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "tueur à gages"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 7 5",
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "professional killer",
          "word": "sicario"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 7 5",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "kíller",
          "sense": "professional killer",
          "word": "ки́ллер"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 7 5",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "professional killer",
          "word": "sicario"
        }
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A male hatchet-wielding participant in a Chinese-American tong war."
      ],
      "id": "en-hatchet_man-en-noun-H2tdMrmk",
      "links": [
        [
          "hatchet",
          "hatchet"
        ],
        [
          "participant",
          "participant"
        ],
        [
          "tong war",
          "tong war"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, historical) A male hatchet-wielding participant in a Chinese-American tong war."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "boo how doy"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "historical"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "4 91 5",
          "code": "zhx-tai",
          "lang": "Taishanese",
          "sense": "hatchet-wielding participant in a tong war",
          "word": "斧頭仔"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "4 91 5",
          "code": "zhx-tai",
          "lang": "Taishanese",
          "roman": "bu² heu³ doi²",
          "sense": "hatchet-wielding participant in a tong war",
          "word": "斧头仔"
        }
      ]
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        {
          "text": "After the layoffs, he gained a reputation as a hatchet man and ended up eating lunches alone."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A male who carries out brutal and unpleasant duties on behalf of another, such as firing dead wood employees."
      ],
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          "dead wood"
        ],
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          "employee",
          "employee"
        ]
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, idiomatic) A male who carries out brutal and unpleasant duties on behalf of another, such as firing dead wood employees."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "7 3 90",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "man who carries unpleasant duties on behalf of another",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "porte-flingue"
        }
      ]
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/En-au-hatchet_man.ogg",
      "tags": [
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  "synonyms": [
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      "_dis1": "48 42 10",
      "word": "hatchetman"
    }
  ],
  "word": "hatchet man"
}
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      "word": "chainsaw consultant"
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    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The crime lord dispatched his favorite hatchet man to make sure the witness would not testify."
        }
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        "A male professional killer or gunman."
      ],
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          "gunman",
          "gunman"
        ]
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        "A male hatchet-wielding participant in a Chinese-American tong war."
      ],
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          "hatchet",
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          "participant",
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, historical) A male hatchet-wielding participant in a Chinese-American tong war."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "boo how doy"
        }
      ],
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        "historical"
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        }
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        "A male who carries out brutal and unpleasant duties on behalf of another, such as firing dead wood employees."
      ],
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          "dead wood",
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        "(colloquial, idiomatic) A male who carries out brutal and unpleasant duties on behalf of another, such as firing dead wood employees."
      ],
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        "colloquial",
        "idiomatic"
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    {
      "sense": "professional killer",
      "word": "assassin"
    },
    {
      "sense": "professional killer",
      "word": "hitman"
    },
    {
      "word": "hatchetman"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "professional killer",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "tueur à gages"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "professional killer",
      "word": "sicario"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "kíller",
      "sense": "professional killer",
      "word": "ки́ллер"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "professional killer",
      "word": "sicario"
    },
    {
      "code": "zhx-tai",
      "lang": "Taishanese",
      "sense": "hatchet-wielding participant in a tong war",
      "word": "斧頭仔"
    },
    {
      "code": "zhx-tai",
      "lang": "Taishanese",
      "roman": "bu² heu³ doi²",
      "sense": "hatchet-wielding participant in a tong war",
      "word": "斧头仔"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "man who carries unpleasant duties on behalf of another",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "porte-flingue"
    }
  ],
  "word": "hatchet man"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-17 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-01 using wiktextract (0b52755 and 5cb0836). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.