heittää kirves kaivoon

Finnish

Alternative forms

• heittää kirveensä kaivoon, heittää kirves järveen

Etymology

Literally "to throw an axe down a well"; possibly a confluence of heittää kirves järveen (with the same meaning) and kuin hohtimet kaivoon.

Verb

heittää kirves kaivoon

1. (idiomatic) to give up (with a project, etc.)

Conjugation

• See heittää.
• kirves is normally in the accusative case (which appears as either the nominative or genitive case depending on the context), but is inflected in the partitive case to express an ongoing or incomplete action or if used in the negative.