Meanings
plural hatchetations
- countableuncountableA violent protest against the drinking of alcohol in which the protester attacks the bar with a hatchet.
Carry's last hatchetation
1978, Joan Swallow Reiter, The Women5 more examples
I tell you I was strongly tempted to perform a little hatchetation on them. And cigarette smoke? Phew!
1936, Laurence Greene, America goes to press: the news of yesterdayThey'd carry on worse than Carry Nation did in all her hatchetations.
1976, Frederick Feikema Manfred, Milk of wolves[…] a more confrontational shot: Carry in battle dress, threatening the photographer with hatchetation.
1999, Karen Joy Fowler, Black glass: short fictionsAnnie Diggs, a noted suffragist and nationally renowned Populist who later applauded Carry Nation's hatchetation of saloons, gave a lecture in Holton on "The Social Evil."
2001, Fran Grace, Carry A. Nation: retelling the lifeCarry Nation's hatchetation, or joint-smashing displays, helped pave the way for the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment […]
2002, Bonnie C Harvey, Carry A. Nation: Saloon Smasher and Prohibitionist
Origin
From hatchet + -ation, coined by Carrie Nation (1846-1911) to describe her own acts of vandalism. Possibly a pun on agitation.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
hatchetation. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hatchetation
“hatchetation.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hatchetation. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hatchetation,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hatchetation.
Source: hatchetation on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.