Made redundant - by the hatchet man? (4)
I believe the answer is:
axed
'made redundant' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'by the hatchet man?' is the wordplay.
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'the hatchet' becomes 'axe' (I've seen this before).
'man?' becomes 'd' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'axe' put next to 'd' is 'AXED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for axed that I've seen before include "Fired - cut down" , "Sacked or terminated - with hatchet?" , "Abandoned project using chopper" , "removed" , "Felled" .)