I found "A sledgehammer to crack a nut" as one example. What are some others?
someone wrote here in a comment: "Using a sledgehammer to miss flies" , but I don't know if this is a frequently used phrase.
Is there a difference between a sledge, a sleigh and a sled? Dictionary definitions suggest they are synonymous, but it certainly sounds wrong to refer to Santa Claus on a sledge.
Sledding requires a sled (or as some responders have called it, a sledge. I think "sledge" is British; I know Americans call it a sled.) I went sledding as a kid, in western Washington state. What matters is not how deep the snow is, but how wet it is, and whether it is compacted or re-frozen so as to have a relatively hard surface. Such compacted snow occurs often in wetter zones, whereas ...
Originally, the proverbial bag of hammers was noisy (and by implication, unsubtle)... They would come down on her with the celerity of a bag of hammers (1913) (where celerity = speed, noise, lack of subtlety). you should listen to yon engines of mine. They clatter like a bag of hammers (1923) That usage was never particularly common - I can find only another 3-4 written instances before it ...
The prefect of police, Colonel Dvorjetsky, who followed behind in a sledge, leaped out and seized the assassin, who drew and fired a revolver. The Emperor [Alexander II] stepped down from the carriage, and at that moment a second bomb was cast, which exploded at his feet, the fragments breaking both his legs and penetrating his abdomen.