shoot an elephant with a BB gun
shoot an elephant with a BB gun verb: to attempt an action with drastically insufficient force, effort, or tools.
Verb
shoot an elephant with a BB gun (third-person singular simple present shoots an elephant with a BB gun, present participle shooting an elephant with a BB gun, simple past and past participle shot an elephant with a BB gun)
- To attempt an action with drastically insufficient force, effort, or tools.
- Antonyms:
- use a sledgehammer to crack a nut
Antonyms of shoot an elephant with a BB gun
Forms of shoot an elephant with a BB gun
| third-person singular present | shoots an elephant with a BB gun |
|---|---|
| present participle | shooting an elephant with a BB gun |
| past participle | shot an elephant with a BB gun |
| past | shot an elephant with a BB gun |
Questions about shoot an elephant with a BB gun
- What does shoot an elephant with a BB gun mean?
- Shoot an elephant with a BB gun means to attempt an action with drastically insufficient force, effort, or tools.
- What part of speech is shoot an elephant with a BB gun?
- Shoot an elephant with a BB gun is a verb.
- What is the past tense of shoot an elephant with a BB gun?
- The past tense of shoot an elephant with a BB gun is shot an elephant with a BB gun.
Words near shoot an elephant with a BB gun in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shoot an elephant with a BB gun (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-shoot an elephant with a BB gun.wav.
Cite this entry: “shoot an elephant with a BB gun.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shoot_an_elephant_with_a_bb_gun. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.