MEANING
To pursue a personal grievance or interest that shapes the position you argue for.
Use it for
questioning a speaker’s personal motive; describing advocacy driven by resentment; showing a hidden interest behind a claim; distinguishing a motive critique from refutation of evidenceHighlights a personal motive behind an argument or action without automatically disproving it. Writing functions: Interested argument.
Words that belong together
- have a personal axe to grind
- have no axe to grind
On the page
His former partner may have an axe to grind, but the documents still require investigation.
The reviewer disclosed her involvement so readers could judge whether she had an axe to grind.
Word forms
- Base
- have an axe to grind
Usage notes
Verbal idiom: have/has/had/had/having an axe to grind. US also ax. The possessive construction someone’s axe to grind is possible, but the canonical phrase uses have. Register: neutral. Commonness: common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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