Word.ws English Dictionary

using a sledgehammer to crack a nut

using a sledgehammer to crack a nut is the present participle and gerund of use a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Meaning of use a sledgehammer 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. (Australia, New Zealand, UK, idiomatic, informal, intransitive) To use disproportionate or significantly excessive force to carry out an action; to do something overzealously.
    • 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."[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...
    Synonyms:
    use a sledgehammer to kill a gnat
    Antonyms:
    shoot an elephant with a BB gun, kill an elephant with a BB gun

Questions about using a sledgehammer to crack a nut

What is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut the present participle and gerund of?
Using a sledgehammer to crack a nut is the present participle and gerund of use a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Words near using a sledgehammer to crack a nut in the dictionary

  1. usin
  2. USINDOPACOM
  3. usine
  4. usines
  5. using
  6. using a sledgehammer to crack a nut
  7. using in anger
  8. using it
  9. using one's head
  10. using one's noggin
  11. using the bathroom

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: using a sledgehammer to crack a nut (page history and authors); use a sledgehammer to crack a nut (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.

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