Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) a particularly vicious piece of criticism, slanderous gossip etc.

1944		Time 23 Oct. 20: Exuberant hatchet jobs were [...] done on Foster Dulles because of his Wall Street connections.
1967		H.S. Thompson letter 28 June in Proud Highway (1997) 627: The Free Press gave a fat block of space to a venomous, lying hatchet-job on a book that deserved at least a truthful appraisal.
1970		J. Bouton Ball Four 371: ‘We thought it was going to be a real nice spread. [...] Then they did a hatchet job on us’.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 112: You’ll always find some little turd with a typewriter ready to do a hatchet job on you.
1999		Guardian Guide 26 June–2 July 6: Broomfield [...] came up with a Courtney hatchet-job extraordinaire.
1999		Observer Business 25 July 5: A blow by blow hatchet job.
2004		V. Sobchack Carnal Thoughts 39: [...] performing its own surgery (a hatchetjob) on the middle-aged producer, director, and star.
2007		T. Dorsey Hurricane Punch 38: ‘Isn’t that your old friend?’ ‘Not after this hatchet job.’.
2012		(con. 1954) ‘Jack Tunney’ Tomato Can Comeback [ebook] Save your hatchet jobs for senators from Wisconsin.

2. (US campus) a broken date.

1975

G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L 1/2 60: hatchet job n 1: Broken date.

1. a man who is used to punish, or even murder, selected victims on the orders of his boss; also in fig. use.

[1882		A. Trumble Heathen Chinee 35: [The Tong] has police officers [...] and hatchet-men, or assassins, who put out of the way those upon whom the judgement of death has been pronounced.
[1916		O.O. McIntyre Day By Day in New York 17 Feb. [synd. col.] The tongs, those secret societies that ruled Chinatown by the law of the feud and the might of their hatchetmen, or executioners].
1929		Tennessean (Nashville, TN) 3 Feb. 7/3: Jake Bird [...] accused ‘hatchet-man’ was convicted today of assaulting Harold Stribling with a handaxe.
1950		J. Weidman Price Is Right 341: If you want to learn, ask your hatchet man to take you down for a lesson.
1963		G. Lambert Inside Daisy Clover (1966) 133: And here’s the hatchet man.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 93: Stan’s eyes burned me — accused me of being Abe’s hatchet man.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 281: That psychotic slug has sent his hatchet for a meet.
2000		Indep. on Sun. Rev. 28 May 40: He’s the child of a hatchet man and a heartless Sloane.

2. anyone who takes on, or is told to take on, unpleasant tasks, such as, in a company, firing members of staff, broaching distasteful but necessary topics etc.

1966		H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 69: The Angels considered him a valuable hatchet man.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 35: How’s tricks, Fritzie? Still got the repo gig? Hatchet man for Cal Myers?

3. a person who is willing to perform a hatchet job in support of a cause or political party.

1949		So. Weekly 23 Mar. 1/1: Truman’s hatchetman [...] announces that he is sending organizing teams into the South to work for the defeat of Congressmen and Senators who oppose the Truman-CIO legislative program [DA].
1976		Senator W.F. Mondale debate 15 Oct. n.p.: Dole has richly earned his reputation as a hatchet man tonight.
1994		J. Wambaugh Finnegan’s Week 124: Those slippery Republican hatchet men.

(US black) a derog. term for a Spanish-speaking man living in Harlem.

1944

‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.

to tell lies, to exaggerate note adj. in cit. 1789.

1789		G. Parker Life’s Painter 94: This is a fault which many of good understanding may fall into, who, from giving way too much to the desire of telling anecdotes, adventures and the like, habituate themselves by degrees to a mode of the hatchet-flinging extreme.
1812		Spirit of Irish Wit 152: Oh come, Charley,’ said Moore, who smelled a hoax, ‘you are flinging the hatchet quite too far’ .
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 254: There is nothing creeping or throwing the hatchet about this description.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 94: He who lies roundly ‘throws the hatchet.’.
1826		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 9 July 605/1: [T]the Duke generally has his jawing-tack on board, and, like Major Longbow, he is an adept at throwing the hatchet .
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 33: Throw the hatchet, to – to tell a marvellous story, or a lie, and swear its [sic] true.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1852		Kendal Mercury 14 Feb. 3/3: However heavily they ‘throw the hatchet,’* (note *Telling a monstrous lie) every ‘Sam tumbles to the dodge’ (every clown perceives the imposture.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1874		Era (London) 11 Jan. 12/1: A giant boy [...] warranted to weigh thierty-five stone (how these showmen can ‘throw the hatchet’).
1873		Sl. Dict.
1893		P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo Ch. xx: We had to call her mother, and, if anyone stopped, she’d sling the hatchet to them, and tell them she was a poor lone widow left with five children.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 July 4/8: The clubmen round at Tattersall’s can also heave the hatchet.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 261: Sling The Hatchet, To: To talk plausibly [sic].