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sledgehammer

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Etymology

Compound of sledge +‎ hammer.

Pronunciation

Noun

sledgehammer (plural sledgehammers)

  1. A hammer that consists of a large, heavy, broad and flat block of metal (the head) attached to a handle typically 0.5 meter to 1 meter long. The sledgehammer's design is meant to allow it to be swung powerfully, and to distribute force over a wide area upon impact.

Alternative forms

  • sledge-hammer

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

sledgehammer (third-person singular simple present sledgehammers, present participle sledgehammering, simple past and past participle sledgehammered)

  1. (transitive) To strike (something) with a sledgehammer.
    • 1989 December 10, Clyde H. Farnsworth, “Japan's Loud Voice in Washington”, in The New York Times‎:
      Some lawmakers were so incensed that they even invited the news media to watch the sledgehammering of the Japanese company's products on the Capitol's steps.
    • 2009 February 22, Jane And Michael Stern, “Nirvana Express”, in The New York Times‎:
      She’s trying to piece together shards of precious pottery gleefully sledgehammered by a delegation led by the Taliban’s minister of culture, who deemed the world’s greatest collection of Central Asian artifacts un-Islamic.

Adjective

sledgehammer (comparative more sledgehammer, superlative most sledgehammer)

  1. Completely lacking grace and dexterity.
    • 2015 October 26, Michael Boyer, “Brave new world of cancer treatment revealed”, in The University of Sydney‎:
      Promising new treatments avoid the sledgehammer approach of traditional chemotherapy in two key ways."

See also

Further reading

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