Other forms: sledgehammers
A sledgehammer is a huge two-handed hammer for breaking things apart. Swing a sledgehammer, take a sledgehammer to it, a ten-pound sledgehammer.
The weight does the work rather than the swing, which is why it is so heavy and why a good stroke is a controlled drop rather than a blow. Using a sledgehammer to crack a nut is the standard phrase for a wildly disproportionate response.
1nounsledgehammerA huge two-handed hammer for breaking things apart.
“The builders used a sledgehammer to knock down the old brick wall.”
sledgehammer is a tool.
sledge + hammer.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA