APAD: A sledgehammer to crack a nut

Meaning:

To use disproportionate force or expense to overcome a minor problem.

 

Background:

  Sledgehammers are large iron hammers that were first used in England in the

  15th century. These weren't tools to hammer sledges, the little ice trolleys

  with runners that the young Citizen Kane was so fond of.

  

  'Sledge' was the original name of this form of hammer, so 'sledgehammer' is

  something of a tautology. 'Sledging' has recently reappeared as a verb form in

  the previously refined and gentle world of cricket, where it means the

  browbeating and harassment of the batsman by the fielders.

  

  'Sledges' were an English invention but this phrase wasn't - it first saw the

  light of day in 1850s America. 'A sledgehammer to crack a nut' is one of the

  many versions of the phrase, the others having faded into disuse.

  

  Pretty well anything which is small and easy to squash has come verbally under

  the hammer, typified by nuts and insects. These have included peanuts, walnuts

  or just nuts; also gnats, flies, mosquitoes etc.. The first to fall victim was

  the humble fly, as in this piece from The Gettysburg Compiler, June 1878:

  

     "Don't worry over little ills of life. It is like taking a sledge hammer to

     kill a fly."

     

  Nuts came into the picture a little later, specifically peanuts; for example,

  this from The Reno Weekly Gazette And Stockman, May 1893:

  

     "We know some men who are always looking for a sledge hammer to crack a

     peanut."

     

Insects and nuts seem to have become combined in the later 'sledgehammer to

kill a gnat' version; for example, Grosvenor B. Clarkson's Industrial America

in The World War, 1923:

 

    "The Board never used a sledgehammer to kill a gnat."

    

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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In Chinese, we have "a cattle-knife to slay a chicken."

 

An idea in UNIX (an early operating system, the ancestor of those powering most

computer products today) was to create small software tools and combine them in

various ways to accomplish larger tasks. Sledgehammers of giant monolithic

programs were very much frowned upon.

 

所有跟帖： 

• 哈哈，牛刀杀鸡. I probably would hit myToe 1st with a sledgehammer -最西边的岛上- ♀ (0 bytes) () 05/12/2024 postreply 08:46:57

• still have the UNIX book on shelf collecting dust ;-) -最西边的岛上- ♀ (238 bytes) () 05/12/2024 postreply 08:52:04

• We share quite a few books! I'd get a copy of 古文观止 some day. -7grizzly- ♂ (0 bytes) () 05/12/2024 postreply 08:59:29

• 真爱惜书呀，这些C ,Perl 都还留着。 -天边一片白云- ♀ (0 bytes) () 05/12/2024 postreply 18:59:50

• That thought made my toes squirm :-) -7grizzly- ♂ (0 bytes) () 05/12/2024 postreply 09:01:18

• 初中体育没铅球用扔手榴弹代替，体育老师每次都板着脸狠我：“扔的那么近是要自杀吗？” 哈哈哈。7G兄周日快乐！ -最西边的岛上- ♀ (0 bytes) () 05/12/2024 postreply 09:16:05

• Hahaha! That's a good one. You made my day:-) Happy Sunday! -7grizzly- ♂ (0 bytes) () 05/12/2024 postreply 09:27:04

• 哈哈，我们高中一男生真这样砸到自己。 -天边一片白云- ♀ (0 bytes) () 05/12/2024 postreply 18:57:45

• 杀鸡用牛刀 -方外居士- ♂ (0 bytes) () 05/12/2024 postreply 09:58:53

• 牛刀杀鸡may work. Sledgehammer hitting a nut can look ugly:) -7grizzly- ♂ (0 bytes) () 05/12/2024 postreply 10:37:07

• 杀鸡通常只是割破喉管放血，用牛刀可能是剁掉头，还是不太一样的，与sledgehammer 效果类似。 -方外居士- ♂ (0 bytes) () 05/12/2024 postreply 10:56:28

• Good point :-)) -7grizzly- ♂ (0 bytes) () 05/12/2024 postreply 12:38:37

• 大惊小怪，大材小用 -妖妖灵- ♀ (0 bytes) () 05/12/2024 postreply 14:20:30

• where's 大惊小怪 coming from? Hahaha! -7grizzly- ♂ (0 bytes) () 05/12/2024 postreply 19:27:52

• overkill, reason why eagles don't catch flies -移花接木- ♂ (0 bytes) () 05/12/2024 postreply 15:32:20

• That helps to explain. I kept thinking eagles' couldn't :-) -7grizzly- ♂ (0 bytes) () 05/12/2024 postreply 19:27:19

• Good one. 学习了。我以前用门转角的缝夹核桃。 -天边一片白云- ♀ (0 bytes) () 05/12/2024 postreply 19:09:22

• That's what we did, too! -7grizzly- ♂ (0 bytes) () 05/12/2024 postreply 19:25:55