hatchet job

/ˌhætʃət ˈdʒɑb/

A hatchet job is an unfair attack on someone, especially a written attack. A newspaper article disguised as a movie review might, on closer inspection, actually be a hatchet job on the film's director.

If you misrepresent or malign someone, particularly in a public way, that's a hatchet job. Writing a gossipy tell-all memoir about your family and close friends might feel like a hatchet job to them if you reveal their secrets and exaggerate their flaws. The phrase hatchet job comes from the earlier hatchet man, 1880s California slang for "hired Chinese assassin," from an earlier military term for the solider in front who cleared the way for troops.

Definitions of hatchet job

1. noun

   a false accusation of an offense or a malicious misrepresentation of someone's words or actions
   synonyms: calumniation, calumny, defamation, obloquy, traducement

   types:

   assassination, blackwash, character assassination

   an attack intended to ruin someone's reputation

   malignment, smear, vilification

   slanderous defamation

   libel

   a false and malicious publication printed for the purpose of defaming a living person

   slander

   words falsely spoken that damage the reputation of another

   name calling, names

   verbal abuse; a crude substitute for argument

   epithet, name

   a defamatory or abusive word or phrase

   mud

   slanderous remarks or charges

   smear word

   an epithet that can be used to smear someone's reputation

   type of:

   depreciation, derogation, disparagement

   a communication that belittles somebody or something