A hatchet is a small axe. You hold it in one hand; the handle is short, and the head is light enough to swing close to your body, for splitting kindling or cutting small wood. A full axe needs two hands and is for bigger trees. People also use hatchet as a verb, though less often: to hatchet something is to cut it with a hatchet, rather roughly. Around the tool sit a few strong pictures that students will meet. “Bury the hatchet” means to stop a fight and make peace — an old saying, still alive, not about gardening. A “hatchet job” is when someone writes or speaks so as to tear another person down. A “hatchet man” is the person a boss sends to do the ugly work, like firing people. Those uses are pictures; the small axe is still the home meaning. Though actually, people say axe loosely for both tools, but a hatchet is the smaller, one-handed one. English already had handaxe; hatchet came in from French for a little axe and mostly took that job.