Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Sledgehammer |
SledgehammerNoun1. A heavy long-handled hammer used to drive stakes or wedges. Verb1. Beat with a sledgehammer. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "sledgehammer" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1906. (references) |
Synonyms: SledgehammerSynonyms: maul (n), sledge (v). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Sledgehammer |
| English words defined with "sledgehammer": sledge. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "sledgehammer": AUTOMOBILE-BUMPER STRAIGHTENER ♦ BOTTOM MAKER, BRAKE HOLDER, bumper straightener ♦ car rider, CARBON SETTER, chute blaster, chute tapper, COAL SAMPLER, crusher operator, CRUSHER TENDER ♦ dry-mill operator, DRY-PAN OPERATOR, dukey rider ♦ fitter, hand ♦ gang rider, GAS-LEAK INSPECTOR, GRIZZLY WORKER ♦ HOUSE-MOVER HELPER ♦ leak locator ♦ maintenance inspector ♦ ore crusher ♦ primary-crusher operator ♦ QUARRY PLUG-AND-FEATHER DRILLER, QUARRY WORKER ♦ rock splitter, roll attendant, rope rider ♦ set rider, SHALE PLANER OPERATOR, SHALE PLANER OPERATOR HELPER, SPIKEMAKING SUPERVISOR, SPRING FITTER, SPRING FORMER, HAND, STOPPER-MAKER HELPER, submarine worker, SWIMMING POOL INSTALLER-AND-SERVICER ♦ TIP-OUT WORKER ♦ ZINC-CHLORIDE OPERATOR. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | This is what I do, if some idiot with a sledgehammer could break in do you really think I'd still have a job (Panic Room; writing credit: David Koepp) Well, we could grind our enemies into talcum powder with a sledgehammer, but, gosh, we did that last night (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer) Guys, Guys, Sledgehammer, Sledgehammer (Celebrity Mole: Hawaii; writing credit: James Carrington; Jim Carrington) You know at Pearl they hit us with a sledgehammer. This raid, even if it makes it through, it'll only be a pinprick but it'll be straight through their hearts (Pearl Harbor; writing credit: Randall Wallace) I'd rather set my head on fire and have it put out with a sledgehammer. (Loose Cannons; writing credit: Richard Christian Matheson; Richard Matheson) | |
Lyrics | I want to be your sledgehammer (Sledgehammer; performing artist: Peter Gabriel) I'm your sledgehammer (Sledgehammer; performing artist: Peter Gabriel) Oh let me be your sledgehammer (Sledgehammer; performing artist: Peter Gabriel) Sledge sledge sledgehammer (Sledgehammer; performing artist: Peter Gabriel) You'd better call the sledgehammer (Sledgehammer; performing artist: Peter Gabriel) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Sledgehammer (1983) | |
Song Titles | Sledgehammer (performing artist: Peter Gabriel) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Comic book illustration showing the Joker standing over a Batman voodoo doll; in the background, a sledgehammer has smashed through a TV showing the World Trade Center towers on fire in New York City during the September 11th terrorist attack] / Pascual. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Katharine Hepburn | Why slap them on the wrist with feather when you can belt them over the head with a sledgehammer. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| "Sledgehammer" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Sledgehammer" is used about 48 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 48 | 49,194 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "sledgehammer": sledgehammer-heat. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "sledgehammer"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | vare (sledge, stamp, tilt-hammer), dërrmues (crushing, knockdown, knockout, overwhelming, scathing), çekan farkëtari (sledge). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | съкрушителен (heartrending, knockdown, overpowering, overwhelming, smashing), удрям с чук, тежък ковашки чук (helve hammer, sledge), тежък (cumbrous, dense, difficult, distressing, faint, grave, grievous, grinding, hammering, hard, heavy, hefty, high, hulking, labored, laborious, laboured, leaden, lumping, lumpish, lumpy, massive, massy, muggy, onerous, painful, plodding, ponderous, robust, rugged, sad, severe, shrewd, slow, smart, smashing, soggy, solemn, sore, stiff, stodgy, taxing, thorny, tight, tough, traumatic, trying, unwieldy, uphill, weighty), тираничен (arbitrary, tyrannical, tyrannous), нанасям тежки удари, боен чук. (various references) | |
Chinese | 大". (various references) | |
Czech | perlík (sledge hammer). (various references) | |
Danish | forhammer (slap hammer, sledge, sledge hammer). (various references) | |
Dutch | voorhamer (slap hammer, sledge), moker (slap hammer, sledge). (various references) | |
Finnish | moukari (sledge-hammer). (various references) | |
French | masse pans (slap hammer), marteau devant (slap hammer, sledge), maillet. (various references) | |
German | vorschlaghammer (slap hammer). (various references) | |
Greek | σφύρα σιδηρουργού, σφύρα δύο χειρών (slap hammer, sledge), βαριά (heavily, seriously). (various references) | |
Hungarian | pöröly (hammer, sledge), nagykalapács, kőtörő kalapács. (various references) | |
Indonesian | godam. (various references) | |
Korean | 대형 망치. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | edgehammerslay.(various references) | |
Romany | v rya. (various references) | |
Russian | сокрушительный (crushing, knock down, shattering, slashing, smashing), кувалда (about-sledge, maul, sled, sledge, sledge-hammer), кузнечный молот (about-sledge), молот (hammer). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | težak kovački čekić. (various references) | |
Spanish | martillo de dos caras (slap hammer), macho (buck, bully, butch, he, macho, male, man, mate, pin, pintle, plug, tap), de macho, combo (bent, Comber), almádena (about-sledge), acotillo (gavels, hammer). (various references) | |
Swedish | slägga (about-sledge, hammer, maul, sledge). (various references) | |
Thai | ค้อนขนา"ใหญ่มาก. (various references) | |
Turkish | yıkıcı (baneful, destructive, devastating, disruptive, ruinous, shattering, subversive), balyoz (sledge), şiddetli (acute, astringent, bitter, brutal, burning, cast iron, consuming, deep, drastic, exquisite, extreme, ferocious, flaming, flash, forceful, frenetic, frenzied, fulminant, furious, gusty, hard, harsh, heavy, high, hot, impetuous, intemperate, intense, intensive, ironclad, keen, profound, rigorous, round, severe, sharp, slashing, smacking, smart, smashing, spanking, splitting, stand up, stern, stinging, stormy, strenuous, strong, sweeping, tempestuous, torrential, vehement, vicious, vigorous, violent, virulent), çok kuvvetli (fortissimo). (various references) | |
Turkmen | яekedaban. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "sledgehammer": sledgehammered, sledgehammering, sledgehammers. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "sledgehammer" (pronounced sle"jha'mer) |
| 4 | -h a' m er | jackhammer. |
| 3 | -a' m er | programmer. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-d-e-e-e-g-h-l-m-m-r-s" | |
-4 letters: ashlered, degrease, demerges, demersal, emeralds, gleamers, haeredes, hammered, rehemmed, released, resealed. | |
-5 letters: adheres, dammers, dealers, degames, degerms, degrees, demerge, dragees, emerald, emerged, emerges, emersed, galeres, gammers, gelders, gleamed, gleamer, grammes, greased, hammers, hareems, headers, healers, hearsed, hedgers, heeders, heelers, hemmers, heralds, heredes, lagered, lamedhs, leaders, leashed, ledgers, measled, medlars, melamed, melders, redeems. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-d-e-e-e-g-h-l-m-m-r-s" | |
+1 letter: sledgehammers. | |
+2 letters: sledgehammered. | |
+3 letters: sledgehammering. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
