chop down
verb
- to cut until the top of a structure (i.e. a tree) falls down
Wiktionary
verb
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see chop, down.
“chop down a tree”
- To curtail, shorten
“In the final edit, the film was chopped down to two hours.”
- To attack (someone) with a knife; to kill (someone), especially by shooting with an automatic weapon.