piñata

plural piñatas · alternative pinata

1. A doll or other decorated container that is filled with candy and hit with a hammer or a stick by blindfolded children during birthday parties or other celebrations until the candy falls out.
2. figurativelySomething which is repeatedly hit or damaged over a period of time.

   When it opened, it prompted rapturous reviews akin to what, many years later, greeted Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao. But the building soon became a piñata for everything wrong with modern architecture.

   2024 October 16, Michael Kimmelman, “Paul Rudolph Was an Architectural Star. Now He’s a Cautionary Tale.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   1 more example

   […] Wiesbaden, largely crippled, nevertheless refuses to sink for the moment, and will become something of a steel piñata for passing British capital ships over the next few hours whilst throwing the odd torpedo back in retaliation.

   2020 August 5, Drachinifel, 3:29 from the start, in The Battle of Jutland - Clash of the Titans - Part 2 (Jellicoe vs Scheer), archived from the original on 12 Sep 2022

present singular third person piñatas · participle present piñataing · participle past piñataed · past piñataed · alternative pinata

1. To hit something or someone with sticks after having filled them with candy.

   2015 (November 20) "Zombie Broheims", episode 14 of Pig Goat Banana Cricket Cricket: "Don't pinata me!"