Jane Smith is president of a large sales company in a city on the American West Coast.
For years her company has made large profits. It has done well, even during bad economic times.
Miss Smith pays her workers well. She gives them many holidays.
And last year, she increased the company's payments for employees who could not work because of sickness.
You probably think that Miss Smith's employees like her very much. But some do not.
Some of her workers say she is a battle axe . They consider her a pushy, demanding woman.
A battle is an armed fight. And an axe is a tool for cutting trees.
Word expert Christine Ammer says the two words were joined in the early nineteen hundreds.
During those days, people began to call a fierce-acting woman a battle-axe. Soon the saying became popular.
