sledgehammer

English

Etymology

A sledgehammer.

Compound of sledge +‎ hammer.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈslɛd͡ʒhæmə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈslɛd͡ʒhæmɚ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sledge‧ham‧mer

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

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

Alternative forms

• sledge-hammer

Coordinate terms

• mallet
• maul

Derived terms

• use a sledgehammer to crack a nut

Related terms

• forehammer
• hammer

Translations

kind of hammer

• Albanian: vare (sq) m
• Arabic: مِرْزَبَّة f (mirzabba), إِرْزَبَّة f (ʔirzabba) (archaic)
• Armenian: կռան (hy) (kṙan)
• Azerbaijani: gürz, kumpul
• Belarusian: кува́лда f (kuválda)
• Bulgarian: вари́я f (varíja), кова́шки чук m (kováški čuk)
• Burmese: တူမ (my) (tuma.)
• Catalan: picassa (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 大錘 / 大锤 (zh) (dàchuí)

• Crimean Tatar: toqmaq, (northern dialect) şoqmar
• Czech: perlík m
• Danish: forhammer (da) c
• Dutch: voorhamer (nl) m, beukhamer m
• Estonian: sepavasar, suurvasar
• Finnish: leka (fi), moukari (fi)
• French: marteau de forgeron m, masse (fr) f, marteau (fr) m
• Galician: marra f, mallo (gl) m, mandarria f
• Georgian: ურო (ka) (uro)
• German: Vorschlaghammer (de) m
• Greek: βαριά (el) f (variá)
• Hebrew: קוּרְנָס \ קֻרְנָס (he) m (kurnás)
• Hindi: लोहार का हथौड़ा m (lohār kā hathauṛā)
• Ido: martelego (io)
• Indonesian: palu godam, godam (id)
• Italian: mazza (it) f, martello da fabbro m
• Japanese: 大型ハンマー (おおがたハンマー, ōgata hanmā), スレッジハンマー (surejjihanmā), 大ハンマー (おおハンマー, ōhanmā)
• Kazakh: зілбалға (zılbalğa)
• Khmer: ញញួរដំដែក (ñɔñuə dɑm daek)
• Korean: 오함마 (ohamma), 슬레지해머 (seullejihaemeo), 큰해머 (keunhaemeo)
• Kyrgyz: барскан (ky) (barskan)
• Lao: ຄ້ອນທະເນີນ (khǭn tha nœ̄n)
• Latin: marcus m
• Latvian: veseris m
• Lithuanian: kūjis m (hammer)
• Macedonian: токмак m (tokmak)
• Malagasy: fampohaza (mg)
• Malay: tukul besi
• Maltese: mazza f
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: лантуу (mn) (lantuu)

• Navajo: bee atsidítsoh
• Norman: marté à deux mains m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: slegge (no) m or f

  Nynorsk: sleggje f, slegge f

• Ottoman Turkish: واریوس (varyos), پتك (petk)
• Persian: پتک (fa) (potk)
• Plautdietsch: Schläaja m
• Polish: młot oburęczny m, młot kowalski m
• Portuguese: marreta (pt) f
• Romanian: baros (ro) n
• Russian: кува́лда (ru) f (kuválda)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: то̀кмак m

  Roman: tòkmak (sh) m

• Slovak: perlík m
• Slovene: macola (sl) f
• Somali: hadhso
• Spanish: almádena (es) f, mandarria (es) f, comba (es) f (South America)
• Swedish: slägga (sv) c
• Tajik: босқон (bosqon)
• Tarifit: azduz m
• Thai: ค้อนปอนด์ (th) (kɔ́ɔn-bpɔɔn)
• Turkish: balyoz (tr), madırga (tr)
• Ukrainian: кува́лда f (kuválda)
• Urdu: مارْتَول m (mārtaul)
• Uzbek: bosqon (uz)
• Vietnamese: búa tạ
• Welsh: gordd (cy) f
• Yiddish: שמידהאַמער m (shmidhamer)

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^[1]:

     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^[2]:

     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^[3]:

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

Further reading

• sledgehammer on Wikipedia.Wikipedia