use a sledgehammer to crack a nut

== English == === Etymology === The analogy dates back to at least the middle of the 19th century: see, for example, this quotation from Levi Carroll Judson’s work Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution (1851): “He at once became the nucleus around which a band of patriots gathered and formed a nut too hard to be cracked by the sledgehammer of monarchy.” === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌjuːz‿ə ˈslɛd͡ʒhæmə tə ˌkɹæk‿ə ˈnʌt/ (General American) IPA(key): /ˌjuz‿ə ˈslɛd͡ʒhæmɚ tə ˌkɹæk‿ə ˈnʌt/ Rhymes: -ʌt Hyphenation: use a sledge‧ham‧mer to crack a nut === Verb === use a sledgehammer to crack a nut (third-person singular simple present uses a sledgehammer to crack a nut, present participle using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, simple past and past participle used a sledgehammer to crack a nut) (intransitive, Australia, British, New Zealand, idiomatic, informal) To use disproportionate or significantly excessive force to carry out an action; to do something overzealously. Synonym: (Canada, US) use a sledgehammer to kill a gnat Antonyms: shoot an elephant with a BB gun, kill an elephant with a BB gun ==== Translations ==== ==== See also ==== break a butterfly upon the wheel bring a knife to a gunfight overkill when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail === References === === Further reading === “use a sledgehammer to crack a nut, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. Colin McIntosh, editor (2013), “a sledgehammer to crack a nut, idiom”, in Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 4th edition, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, reproduced in the Cambridge English Dictionary website, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. “a sledgehammer to crack a nut, phrase”, in Collins English Dictionary; from Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary, 6th edition, Boston, Mass.: Heinle Cengage Learning; Glasgow: HarperCollins Publishers, 2009, →ISBN.