use a sledgehammer to crack a nut
Meaning: To use far more force than a small problem needs.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “Suing the neighbor over a hedge is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: A heavy hammer for a tiny nut. The British phrase is common from the 20th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- Thai: ขี่ช้างจับตั๊กแตน — literally: To ride an elephant to catch a grasshopper
More idioms — Daily Life
- come down hard on someone — To punish or criticize someone severely.
- Pédaler dans la semoule — To be confused and getting nowhere.
- Avoir d'autres chats à fouetter — To have more important things to do.
- Avoir le cul entre deux chaises — To be indecisive, caught between two options.
- Les carottes sont cuites — It's too late, nothing can be done.
- Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof — I don't understand anything at all.
More English idioms
- a monkey's wedding — A sunshower, when rain falls while the sun shines.
- off one's trolley — Crazy or foolish.
- as scarce as hen's teeth — Extremely rare.
- half a loaf is better than none — Getting part of what you want is better than getting nothing.
- have a big mouth — To talk too much, especially about things that should be kept secret.
- an army marches on its stomach — People cannot work well without food.
From our tongue twisters
- Pad kid poured curd pulled cod. — Alternating repetition — the consonants swap at the start of every other word, which is w…
- Red lorry, yellow lorry. — The 'l/r' alternation drill — deceptively short, yet almost impossible to say fast withou…
- How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? — A 'w/ch/ck' drill that accelerates comically — and nobody really knows the answer.