From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsledgehammersledge‧ham‧mer /ˈsledʒˌhæmə $ -ər/ noun [countable] TZa large heavy hammer
Examples from the Corpus
sledgehammer• The principle of proportionality - do not use a sledgehammer to crack a nut - is straight forward logic.• If that is true, he is waving a magic wand with a sledgehammer on the end.• Grandmother Sylvia Pye is breaking up wood with a sledgehammer at the roadside.• For instance, many people learn in high school that alcohol is a depressant-a kind of chemical sledgehammer for the mind.• That's the heavy sledgehammer that Blake is swinging.• No gas, no needle, no sledgehammer.• The lock shattered with a single blow of the sledgehammer and they were in.• It did so by contrasting the answers from two workers who were busily wielding sledgehammers in a rock quarry.Origin sledgehammer (1400-1500) sledge “sledgehammer” ((11-21 centuries)) (from Old English slecg) + hammer 