sledgehammer

plural sledgehammers · alternative sledge-hammer

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.

   These were succeeded by anchor and chain-cable forges, where sledgehammers were dinging upon iron all day long.

   1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC

   1 more example

   They take sledgehammers to statues with an uncommon gusto – destroying in seconds what may have survived centuries.

   2015 February 26, Ben Wedeman, Dana Ford, “Video shows ISIS militants destroying antiquities in Iraq”, in CNN, archived from the original on 01 Feb 2023

present singular third person sledgehammers · participle present sledgehammering · participle past sledgehammered · past sledgehammered

1. transitiveTo strike (something) with a sledgehammer.

   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.

   1989 December 10, Clyde H. Farnsworth, “Japan's Loud Voice in Washington”, in The New York Times

   1 more example

   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.

   2009 February 22, Jane And Michael Stern, “Nirvana Express”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 26 Nov 2022

comparative more sledgehammer · superlative most sledgehammer

1. Completely lacking grace and dexterity.

   Promising new treatments avoid the sledgehammer approach of traditional chemotherapy in two key ways."

   2015 October 26, Michael Boyer, “Brave new world of cancer treatment revealed”, in The University of Sydney, archived from the original on 02 Apr 2023