bury the hatchet
To cease fighting or arguing; to reach an agreement, or at least a truce.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“It is time to bury the hatchet and be friends again.”
“They bury the hatchet so they can work together on the new project.”
“You should bury the hatchet before the holiday dinner starts tonight.”
“After years of arguing about the property line, the neighbors finally decided to bury the hatchet.”
“My sister and I finally buried the hatchet after we both realized that our old argument was not worth losing our relationship over.”
“The two companies decided to bury the hatchet and sign a deal instead of spending more money on expensive legal battles in court.”
“Despite their long history of political disagreement, the two leaders chose to bury the hatchet for the sake of the country's future.”
The phrase is an allusion to the figurative or literal practice of putting away the tomahawk at the cessation of hostilities among or by Native Americans in the Eastern United States, specifically during the formation of the Iroquois Confederacy, and in Iroquois custom in general. Weapons were to be buried or otherwise cached in time of peace.
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buried treasure
Something valuable that is concealed for a long time and then rediscovered.
- 02
bury one's head in the sand
To deliberately ignore the reality of a situation; to pretend a problem does not exist.
- 03
bury the lede
To begin a story with details of secondary importance to the reader while postponing more essential points or facts.
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dead 'n' buried
Contraction of dead and buried.
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dead and buried
Of an issue, moot, passed, irrelevant, forgotten.
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hatchet man
A male who carries out brutal and unpleasant duties on behalf of another, such as firing dead wood employees.
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know where the bodies are buried
To possess confidential and incriminating information about a person's or organization's misdeeds or other secrets.
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take up the hatchet
To declare war or go to war.
Last updated August 10, 2026