sledgehammer
Americannoun
verb (used with or without object)
adjective
noun
-
a large heavy hammer with a long handle used with both hands for heavy work such as forging iron, breaking rocks, etc
-
(modifier) resembling the action of a sledgehammer in power, ruthlessness, etc
a sledgehammer blow
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
sledgehammersimple
-
sledgehammerssimple
-
have sledgehammeredperfect
-
has sledgehammeredperfect
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am sledgehammeringprogressive
-
are sledgehammeringprogressive
-
is sledgehammeringprogressive
-
have been sledgehammeringperfect progressive
-
has been sledgehammeringperfect progressive
Past
-
sledgehammeredsimple
-
had sledgehammeredperfect
-
was sledgehammeringprogressive
-
were sledgehammeringprogressive
-
had been sledgehammeringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sledgehammer
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:
"One of them answers and says he's wounded in the stomach," he said, recounting how their father and another brother were using a pickaxe and a sledgehammer to try to break them free.
From Barron's ● Jun. 27, 2026
If we encounter any ice, we have an ice pick or sledgehammer.
From Slate ● Feb. 24, 2026
“Distributors looked at it and saw a substance and a really big idea, revolving around that wonderful sledgehammer of a line.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 16, 2026
It gutted me seeing my children bent over, racked with sobs from the sledgehammer blow of disbelief and heartbreak at the sight of their home lying before them in ashes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 8, 2026
An Erudite man—his faction still indicated by his neatly parted hair—bursts free of the crowd just as Edward is pulling back the sledgehammer for another swing.
From "Allegiant" by Veronica Roth
"The effort it took me to get her out of there with my bare hands, with sledgehammers, with pickaxes... you can't even begin to imagine," he said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
Firefighters were eventually forced to melt it down after fans attempted to thaw the sculpture with blowtorches and chip away at it with sledgehammers.
From BBC ● May 15, 2026
They are often are slinging sledgehammers and crowbars “in a sauna-like environment,” said Fabian Plascencia, of the Northern District Council of Laborers Local 67.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2024
“The architecture must speak,” Dochantschi said, above the noise of sledgehammers and buzzsaws, which are transforming the derelict space into a flexible showroom for the multicultural artists of Alexander Gray Associates.
From New York Times ● Mar. 26, 2023
Over the years, bad men have come with sledgehammers and broken off pieces of Cleo to sell to relic hunters.
From "The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra's Needle" by Dan Gutman
The shock of her death sledgehammered a country teetering on an ugly and desperate edge.
From Slate ● Sep. 21, 2020
As he sledgehammered up and down the court through these finals, looking for support that never really came, I found myself wondering: what must it feel like to be LeBron?
From The Guardian ● Jun. 9, 2018
After Thamer parked outside, we ran from the Humvee through a hole sledgehammered into one of the walls.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 29, 2017
Because one day Lock sees a man on television breaking the world record for most cinder blocks sledgehammered over his groin.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 16, 2016
The original stand has been sledgehammered to make way for a fancy new shop.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2015
I’d filed the piece with a suggested headline saying the song was “a sledgehammering return to the dance floor,” a phrase that, you know, actually indicated how the song sounds.
From Salon ● Jun. 18, 2026
In her first scene, she is seen sledgehammering a wall in her closet while wearing a red ball gown and a sparkling diamond necklace.
From New York Times ● Jun. 6, 2023
Whatever the term, the Rams appear to be sledgehammering how they built a Super Bowl champion in the 2021 season — before cratering last season.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 9, 2023
But in practice, Quibi’s content felt less revolutionary than underbaked, slapdash concepts sledgehammering the viewer with abrupt hits of celebrity.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 29, 2020
That, or a really, really angry guy has started sledgehammering the wall, such is the way the music pulses.
From "Better Nate Than Ever" by Tim Federle
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.
