axe vs employ

axe

noun
  • A dismissal or rejection. 

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

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

  • 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. 

employ

noun
  • The state of being an employee; employment. 

verb
  • To hire (somebody for work or a job). 

  • To use (somebody for a job, or something for a task). 

  • To make busy. 

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