get the ax

(redirected from be given the axe)

get the ax(e)

1. To be fired. I'm going to get the axe if the boss finds out that printing error was my fault.
2. To be ended or stopped abruptly. I'm so disappointed that my favorite show got the axe this year.
See also: get

get the ax

Also, get the boot or bounce or can or heave-ho or hook or sack . Be discharged or fired, expelled, or rejected. For example, He got the ax at the end of the first week, or The manager was stunned when he got the boot himself, or We got the bounce in the first quarter, or The pitcher got the hook after one inning, or Bill finally gave his brother-in-law the sack. All but the last of these slangy expressions date from the 1870s and 1880s. They all have variations using give that mean "to fire or expel someone," as in Are they giving Ruth the ax?Get the ax alludes to the executioner's ax, and get the boot to literally booting or kicking someone out. Get the bounce alludes to being bounced out; get the can comes from the verb can, "to dismiss," perhaps alluding to being sealed in a container; get the heave-ho alludes to heave in the sense of lifting someone bodily, and get the hook is an allusion to a fishing hook. Get the sack, first recorded in 1825, probably came from French though it existed in Middle Dutch. The reference here is to a workman's sac ("bag") in which he carried his tools and which was given back to him when he was fired. Also see give someone the air.
See also: ax, get

get the axe


get the chop

1. If someone gets the axe or gets the chop, they lose their job. Note: `Axe' is spelled `ax' in American English. Business managers, executives and technical staff are all getting the axe. I've often wondered whether I'd have got the chop, if I'd stayed long enough to find out. Note: You can also say that someone is given the axe or is given the chop. She was last night given the axe from the hit TV show.
2. If something such as a project or part of a business gets the axe or gets the chop, it is ended suddenly. Note: `Axe' is spelled `ax' in American English. That is one of the TV shows likely to get the axe. Services to major towns and cities across England are getting the chop or being reduced. Note: You can also say that something is given the axe or is given the chop. A few days previously, the Westoe Colliery, the last pit in the region, was given the axe.
See also: axe, get

get the ax

See also: ax, get