HATCHET JOB

n. phr. , slang 1. The act of saying or writing terrible things about someone or something, usually on behalf of one's boss or organization. When Phil makes speeches against the competition exaggerating their weaknesses, he is doing the hatchet job on behalf of our president. 2. A ruthless, wholesale job of editing a script whereby entire paragraphs or pages are omitted. Don, my editor, did a hatchet job on my new novel.