Dictionary

blunt instrument en · NOUN

Meanings

1. (literally) An object lacking sharp surfaces, especially as used to cause injury.
   • It had been struck by some heavy blunt instrument, but the skull was not broken. 1913, Sax Rohmer, chapter 8, in The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu:
   • One deep wound had been inflicted upon the temple, apparently with some blunt instrument, which had penetrated the brain. 1851, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, The Murdered Cousin:
2. (figuratively) A thing, person, method, or resource which is not sufficiently precise or not sufficiently effective for its intended role or use.
   • Operational managers are removing trains from the timetable with the aim of reducing traincrew and rolling stock costs. This is a blunt instrument that without careful assessment removes connecting services and causes the loss of trains required for school or work arrival times. 2022 January 12, Industry Insider, “Treasury demands cutbacks”, in RAIL, number 948, page 68:
   • [T]he United States will continue to rely on dollar depreciation as a blunt instrument to fight all its economic battles. 2008 January 12, “Passing The Devalued Buck”, in Newsweek, retrieved 12 Jun 2011:
   • The analyst is in a sense a blunt instrument, but he can work as somebody who cares, and I think a good analyst makes the patient feel that he has value. 1987, Iris Murdoch, in John Haffenden, Novelists in Interview, p. 202
   • The law is a woefully blunt instrument when it comes to domestic violence of all kinds. 2003 May 5, Aisha Labi, “The Runaway Bride”, in Time:
   • If Mr. Mubarak's Egypt has resorted to the traditional blunt instrument against dissent in a crisis — cutting off communications altogether — other countries have shown greater sophistication. 2011 January 29, Scott Shane, “Spotlight Again Falls on Web Tools and Change”, in New York Times, retrieved 12 Jun 2011:

Forms

Relateds

shotgun approach

Translations (11)

it corpo contundente (object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury) · pl tępe narzędzie (object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury) · da stump genstand (object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury) · ru тупо́е ору́дие (object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury) · fi tylppä esine (object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury) · fr instrument contondant (object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury) · fr arme contondante (object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury) · cmn 鈍器 /钝器 (object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury) · ro instrument contondent (object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury) · fr outil contondant (object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury) · sv tillhygge (object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury)