ramrod
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
-
to exert discipline and authority on.
-
to strike or injure with or as if with a ramrod.
-
to accomplish or put into action by force, intimidation, etc..
to ramrod a bill through Congress.
noun
-
a rod for cleaning the barrel of a rifle or other small firearms
-
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:
Each picture is composed just so, to accentuate her best features: the long, swanlike neck; the well-toned midriff; the high, strong shoulders; the ramrod posture; and—this feels new—the gaunt cheeks and picture-perfect jawline.
From Slate ● Jan. 31, 2024
Not only that, the heavily tattooed figure in back remained ramrod straight with his arms at his sides, conveniently disguised in dark tinted glasses, a goatee and straw lifeguard hat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2023
Mr. Reddick, a classically trained pianist who attended Yale University’s School of Drama, often built his performances in police dramas around a drill-sergeant demeanor — with a gleaming scalp, gravelly baritone voice and ramrod bearing.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 17, 2023
Opposite Corbery, Clément Hervieu-Léger is prissy and repressed as a bewigged Robespierre, with a dancer’s ramrod posture throughout.
From New York Times ● Jan. 19, 2023
Ben, his back ramrod straight, seems frozen, staring at the whiteboard.
From "Towers Falling" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
“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
The measures were ramrodded into law by rookie Democratic Governor Gaston Caperton, 49, a man who is determined to upend the state's feckless political tradition and sell mountaineers something they haven't had in decades: hope.
From Time Magazine Archive
It energized the near manic pace at which Groves ramrodded the project forward.
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 Brown, Paul Cameron
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.
