use a sledgehammer to crack a nut

English

WOTD – 28 April 2023

Etymology

The analogy dates back to at least the middle of the 19th century: see, for example, this quotation from Levi Carroll Judson’s work Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution (1851): “He at once became the nucleus around which a band of patriots gathered and formed a nut too hard to be cracked by the sledgehammer of monarchy.”

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌjuːz‿ə ˈslɛd͡ʒhæmə tə ˌkɹæk‿ə ˈnʌt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌjuz‿ə ˈslɛd͡ʒhæmɚ tə ˌkɹæk‿ə ˈnʌt/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌt
• Hyphenation: use a sledge‧ham‧mer to crack a nut

Verb

use a sledgehammer to crack a nut (third-person singular simple present uses a sledgehammer to crack a nut, present participle using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, simple past and past participle used a sledgehammer to crack a nut)

1. (intransitive, Australia, British, New Zealand, idiomatic, informal) To use disproportionate or significantly excessive force to carry out an action; to do something overzealously.

   Synonym: (Canada, US) use a sledgehammer to kill a gnat

   Antonyms: shoot an elephant with a BB gun, kill an elephant with a BB gun

   • [1983 January 20, Lord Diplock [i.e., Kenneth Diplock, Baron Diplock], Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, House of Lords, “Regina, respondent, and Goldstein, appellant [[1983] 1 W.L.R. 151]”, in The Weekly Law Reports, volume 1, London: Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 155:

     This last mentioned consideration involves the concept in Community law (derived principally from German law) called "proportionality". In plain English it means "You must not use a steam hammer to crack a nut, if a nutcracker would do."]

   • 2010 September 21, “‘A sledgehammer to crack a nut’: Three police officers and a patrol car rush to … children playing football in the street”, in Daily Mail‎^[1], London: DMG Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-03-06:

     Today, Mr [Anthony] Worthington, an engineer, said: 'Sending three officers over simply to give a warning about kids playing football in the street is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. […]'

   • 2022 December 17, Martin Evans, quoting Mike Barton et al., “Law to curb Just Stop Oil protests ‘a sledgehammer to crack a nut’, say ex-police chiefs”, in Chris Evans, editor, The Daily Telegraph‎^[2], London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-02-18:

     In our view the Public Order Bill is an attempt by the Government to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. At a time when we should be focusing on rebuilding trust in the police, this Bill risks stoking further mistrust and undermining their vital role in protecting the public.

Translations

to use disproportionate or significantly excessive force to carry out an action

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 高射炮打蚊子 (gāoshèpào dǎ wénzi, literally “to use an anti-aircraft gun to hit a mosquito”), 割雞焉用牛刀 / 割鸡焉用牛刀 (zh) (gējī yān yòng niúdāo, literally “when killing a chicken, why use an ox cleaver?”), 牛鼎烹雞 / 牛鼎烹鸡 (zh) (niúdǐngpēngjī, literally “to use a cauldron for a cow to cook a chicken”)

• Czech: jít s kanónem na vrabce (literally “to go shooting a cannon at a sparrow”)
• Danish: skyde spurve med kanoner (literally “to shoot sparrows with cannons”)
• Dutch: met een kanon op een mug schieten (literally “to shoot a mosquito with a cannon”)
• Finnish: ampua tykillä kärpästä (literally “to shoot at a fly with a cannon”)
• French: écraser une mouche avec un marteau (fr) (literally “to smash a fly with a hammer”), tuer une mouche avec un canon (fr) (literally “to kill a fly with a cannon”)
• German: mit Kanonen auf Spatzen schießen (de) (literally “to shoot at sparrows with cannons”)
• Italian: sparare agli uccellini col cannone (literally “to shoot at little birds with a cannon”)
• Kannada: ಗುಬ್ಬಿ ಮೇಲೆ ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಾಸ್ತ್ರ (gubbi mēle brahmāstra, literally “to strike a sparrow with the brahmāstra”)
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: skyte spurv med kanoner (no) (literally “to shoot sparrows with cannons”)

  Nynorsk: skyte sporv med kanonar (literally “to shoot sparrows with cannons”)

• Polish: strzelać z armaty do muchy impf (literally “to shoot a cannon at a fly”)
• Russian: пали́ть из пу́шки по воробья́м (ru) impf (palítʹ iz púški po vorobʹjám, literally “to fire a cannon at sparrows”)
• Spanish: matar moscas a cañonazos (literally “to kill flies with cannon shots”)
• Swedish: skjuta sparvar med kanoner (literally “to shoot sparrows with cannons”)
• Telugu: పిచ్చుక మీద బ్రహ్మాస్త్రము (piccuka mīda brahmāstramu, literally “to strike a sparrow with the brahmāstra”)
• Thai: ขี่ช้างจับตั๊กแตน (th) (kìi-cháang-jàp-dták-gà-dtɛɛn, literally “to ride an elephant to catch a grasshopper”)
• Welsh: cymryd gordd i dorri cneuen (literally “to take a sledgehammer to crack a nut”), to llosgi'r gwely i ladd y chwannen (literally “burn the bed to kill the flea”)

See also

• break a butterfly upon the wheel
• bring a knife to a gunfight
• overkill
• when your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail

Further reading

• “use a sledgehammer to crack a nut, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• Colin McIntosh, editor (2013), “a sledgehammer to crack a nut, idiom”, in Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 4th edition, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, reproduced in the Cambridge English Dictionary website, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• “a sledgehammer to crack a nut, phrase”, in Collins English Dictionary; from Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary, 6th edition, Boston, Mass.: Heinle Cengage Learning; Glasgow: HarperCollins Publishers, 2009, →ISBN.