beat one's swords into ploughshares

Verb

beat one's swords into ploughshares (third-person singular simple present beats one's swords into ploughshares, present participle beating one's swords into ploughshares, simple past beat one's swords into ploughshares, past participle beaten one's swords into ploughshares or beat one's swords into ploughshares)

1. (idiomatic) To refrain from destructive military or paramilitary acts (war, terrorism, etc.) and put energy and resources to peaceful ends that would otherwise go to violence.
   • There are two choices before us: We can beat our plowshares into swords and prepare for war, or we can beat our swords into plowshares and prepare for peace.1947, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services, Hearings ... on Sundry Legislation Affecting the Naval and Military Establishments, page 171
   • What do the 90s mean for those who wish to beat swords into plowshares? First, they call for gratitude to the courageous women and men who nonviolently toppled dictators and tumbled walls.2010, Anne Montgomery, “Resistance to U.S. Massacre in Iraq”, in Arthur J. Laffin, Anne Montgomery, editors, Swords into Plowshares
2. (literal) To convert military technologies to peaceful civilian applications.
   • And as for “beating our swords into plowshares” in the case of peacetime utilization of actual war implements: The United States Forest Service is testing the Pyrogel (goop) incendiary mixture for burning slash in forest areas. The Chemical Warfare Service in Hawaii is reconverting Napalm...1946, Robert Percy Williams, Military Establishment Appropriation Bill for 1947, page 848
   • Briefly stated, Mr. Truman pictured how the nations of the world could, through “real disarmament," turn swords into plowshares and transform our armaments "into foods, medicines, tools for use in undeveloped areas, and into other aids for human advancement. This is the goal," the President said...1951, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Armed Services, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Armed Services. Subcommittee on Preparedness, Universal Military Training and Service...