axe vs battle axe

axe

noun
  • An ancient weapon consisting of a head that has one or two blades and a long handle. 

  • A position, interest, or reason in buying and selling stock, often with ulterior motives. 

  • A dismissal or rejection. 

  • A tool for felling trees or chopping wood etc. consisting of a heavy head flattened to a blade on one side, and a handle attached to it. 

  • A drastic reduction or cutback. 

  • A gigging musician's particular instrument, especially a guitar in rock music or a saxophone in jazz. 

verb
  • To lay off, terminate or drastically reduce, especially in a rough or ruthless manner; to cancel. 

  • To furnish with an axle. 

  • To fell or chop with an axe. 

battle axe

noun
  • An ancient military weapon, an axe designed for combat, including (in heraldry) when borne on arms as a mark of prowess. 

  • A domineering, antagonistic woman. 

  • An allotment of land at the rear of another property, with a long, narrow strip of land connecting it to the roadway. 

  • An electric guitar. 

How often have the words axe and battle axe occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )