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
-
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
In 1942 Fiorello La Guardia, New York City’s mayor, was photographed smashing a pinball machine with a sledgehammer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026
If we encounter any ice, we have an ice pick or sledgehammer.
From Slate ● Feb. 24, 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
A container of IcyHot, a bag of little black specks, five or six heavy-duty bungee cords, a screwdriver, a socket wrench, and a small sledgehammer.
From "Made You Up" by Francesca Zappia
"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
The show featured the actors who played the Brady kids taking sledgehammers to the interiors while “Property Brothers” stars Drew and Jonathan Scott reshaped the living spaces.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 4, 2026
They train by climbing stairs and swinging sledgehammers wearing up to 80 pounds of bulky, suffocating gear, and make a career of bursting into burning buildings and rushing toward explosive brush fires.
From New York Times ● Jul. 16, 2023
A group of men using sledgehammers and other tools found the bodies of a man and a young girl who were trapped.
From BBC ● Feb. 7, 2023
Rakes, brooms, sledgehammers, and saws to clean up their streets and yards.
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
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
This is what good investments look like — at least for one game — Khalil Mack sledgehammering loose the football and bringing down a quarterback and, with him, an entire opposing team.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2022
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
Seinfeld worked construction, sledgehammering walls for $25 a day.
From Time ● Sep. 19, 2017
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.
