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Question

An idiom is given below, followed by four possible meanings. Select the option that best conveys the meaning of the idiom.

To throw the helve after the hatchet

The correct answer is

To worsen a situation by incurring further loss after an initial failure

The helve is the handle of an axe and the hatchet is the blade. The idiom comes from the story of a woodcutter whose axe-head flew into a river and who, in despair, threw the handle in after it.

So “to throw the helve after the hatchet” means to add a fresh loss to one already suffered — to give up what is left after a setback and thereby make matters worse.

It is not about acting rashly in general, abandoning a hard task midway, or retaliating with excessive force; its core is compounding an earlier loss with a further one.

Hence, the answer is To worsen a situation by incurring further loss after an initial failure.

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