Idiom
Bury the hatchet
To bury the hatchet means to stop arguing or fighting with someone and make peace.
How people use it
People use this for ending long quarrels between friends, relatives, neighbors, coworkers or rival groups. The usual pattern is "bury the hatchet with someone." It suggests the conflict was real and lasted a while, not a tiny spat. The tone is informal to neutral. A related phrase, "let bygones be bygones," means much the same thing. Burying the hatchet is about making peace, not necessarily becoming close friends again.
Also said: bury the hatchet with someone.
Examples
- After years of not speaking, the two brothers finally buried the hatchet at their dad's birthday.
- Let's bury the hatchet and work on this project together.
- The rival bakeries buried the hatchet and teamed up for the town fair.
Where it comes from
The phrase comes from a custom among some Native American peoples, especially in the Northeast, of burying weapons as part of making peace between groups. English colonists described the practice in the late 1600s and the 1700s, and "bury the hatchet" was used figuratively in American English by the 1700s.
Check yourself
1. If two neighbors bury the hatchet, what do they do?
Answer: They make peace. Bury the hatchet means ending a quarrel.
2. Which sentence uses the idiom correctly?
Answer: Grace and her old roommate buried the hatchet over coffee.. They made peace, which is what the idiom describes.
Similar idioms
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