ramrod
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
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to exert discipline and authority on.
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to strike or injure with or as if with a ramrod.
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to accomplish or put into action by force, intimidation, etc..
to ramrod a bill through Congress.
noun
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a rod for cleaning the barrel of a rifle or other small firearms
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a rod for ramming in the charge of a muzzle-loading firearm
Etymology
Origin of ramrod
Vocabulary lists containing ramrod
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
What’s grim, however, is that secured creditors like JPMorgan are usually free to ramrod as they please.
From Slate ● May 16, 2024
General Kitson was short and stocky, with a ramrod posture and a high, nasal voice.
From New York Times ● Feb. 15, 2024
There was another, more admirable side to that stubbornness and refusal to quit: A ramrod determination and unsinking resilience that girded Feinstein through a lifetime filled with maelstrom.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2023
“He brought it all: that ramrod posture, the anchor voice, the slicked-back hair. He brought a credibility to the character,” said “Murphy Brown” creator Diane English, in a 2007 interview with the Television Academy Foundation.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 6, 2023
Next he put the ramrod back in its place against the gun barrel.
From "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder
“Rural communities that don’t have political power just get ramrodded over,” English said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2024
State Sen. Joseph Griffo, R-Rome, agrees the camera bill is a good one, but says the Legislature ramrodded it through without giving it any thought.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 4, 2019
As Joe Martin moved up to Speaker, Halleck overrode Taft regulars to become majority leader, ramrodded through bills such as the Taft-Hartley Act and tax-cutting measures.
From Time Magazine Archive
It energized the near manic pace at which Groves ramrodded the project forward.
From Time Magazine Archive
For eleven years, grumpy Charlie had ramrodded the Bronx Democratic ma chine he inherited from Franklin D. Roosevelt's old friend, Boss Ed Flynn.
From Time Magazine Archive
“This gives us a say … to help us protect what we worked so hard for instead of just coming in and ramrodding things through,” Klicker said.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 2, 2023
After Lefaucheux was killed three years ago in an auto accident, Dreyfus, his longtime ramrodding chief of production, stepped into his job.
From Time Magazine Archive
In ramrodding an outfit to market, or seeing a plan to completion, all must stand clear of brackish water, wolfsbane and loco weed.
From The Land of Look Behind by Paul Cameron Brown
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
