"blunt instrument" meaning in English

See blunt instrument in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: blunt instruments [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} blunt instrument (plural blunt instruments)
  1. (literally) An object lacking sharp surfaces, especially as used to cause injury. Tags: literally Translations (object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury): 鈍器 (Chinese Mandarin), 钝器 (dùnqì) (Chinese Mandarin), stump genstand [common-gender] (Danish), tylppä esine (Finnish), arme contondante [feminine] (French), instrument contondant [masculine] (French), outil contondant [masculine] (French), corpo contundente [masculine] (Italian), tępe narzędzie [neuter] (Polish), instrument contondent [neuter] (Romanian), тупо́е ору́дие (tupóje orúdije) [neuter] (Russian), tillhygge [common-gender] (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-blunt_instrument-en-noun-XTyf3Reu Disambiguation of 'object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury': 97 3
  2. (figuratively) A thing, person, method, or resource which is not sufficiently precise or not sufficiently effective for its intended role or use. Tags: figuratively
    Sense id: en-blunt_instrument-en-noun-lS5cmrWg

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for blunt instrument meaning in English (4.8kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "blunt instruments",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "blunt instrument (plural blunt instruments)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1851, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, The Murdered Cousin",
          "text": "One deep wound had been inflicted upon the temple, apparently with some blunt instrument, which had penetrated the brain.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1913, Sax Rohmer, chapter 8, in The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu",
          "text": "It had been struck by some heavy blunt instrument, but the skull was not broken.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An object lacking sharp surfaces, especially as used to cause injury."
      ],
      "id": "en-blunt_instrument-en-noun-XTyf3Reu",
      "links": [
        [
          "injury",
          "injury"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(literally) An object lacking sharp surfaces, especially as used to cause injury."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "literally"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
          "word": "鈍器"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "dùnqì",
          "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
          "word": "钝器"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "da",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "stump genstand"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
          "word": "tylppä esine"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "arme contondante"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "instrument contondant"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "outil contondant"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "corpo contundente"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "tępe narzędzie"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "ro",
          "lang": "Romanian",
          "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "instrument contondent"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "tupóje orúdije",
          "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "тупо́е ору́дие"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "tillhygge"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1987, Iris Murdoch, in John Haffenden, Novelists in Interview, p. 202",
          "text": "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."
        },
        {
          "ref": "May 5 2003, Aisha Labi, “The Runaway Bride”, in Time",
          "text": "The law is a woefully blunt instrument when it comes to domestic violence of all kinds.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "Jan 12 2008, “Passing The Devalued Buck”, in Newsweek, retrieved 2011-06-12",
          "text": "[T]he United States will continue to rely on dollar depreciation as a blunt instrument to fight all its economic battles.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "Jan 29 2011, Scott Shane, “Spotlight Again Falls on Web Tools and Change”, in New York Times, retrieved 2011-06-12",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "January 12 2022, Industry Insider, “Treasury demands cutbacks”, in RAIL, number 948, page 68",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A thing, person, method, or resource which is not sufficiently precise or not sufficiently effective for its intended role or use."
      ],
      "id": "en-blunt_instrument-en-noun-lS5cmrWg",
      "links": [
        [
          "precise",
          "precise"
        ],
        [
          "effective",
          "effective"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively) A thing, person, method, or resource which is not sufficiently precise or not sufficiently effective for its intended role or use."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "blunt instrument"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "blunt instruments",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "blunt instrument (plural blunt instruments)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1851, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, The Murdered Cousin",
          "text": "One deep wound had been inflicted upon the temple, apparently with some blunt instrument, which had penetrated the brain.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1913, Sax Rohmer, chapter 8, in The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu",
          "text": "It had been struck by some heavy blunt instrument, but the skull was not broken.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An object lacking sharp surfaces, especially as used to cause injury."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "injury",
          "injury"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(literally) An object lacking sharp surfaces, especially as used to cause injury."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "literally"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1987, Iris Murdoch, in John Haffenden, Novelists in Interview, p. 202",
          "text": "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."
        },
        {
          "ref": "May 5 2003, Aisha Labi, “The Runaway Bride”, in Time",
          "text": "The law is a woefully blunt instrument when it comes to domestic violence of all kinds.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "Jan 12 2008, “Passing The Devalued Buck”, in Newsweek, retrieved 2011-06-12",
          "text": "[T]he United States will continue to rely on dollar depreciation as a blunt instrument to fight all its economic battles.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "Jan 29 2011, Scott Shane, “Spotlight Again Falls on Web Tools and Change”, in New York Times, retrieved 2011-06-12",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "January 12 2022, Industry Insider, “Treasury demands cutbacks”, in RAIL, number 948, page 68",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A thing, person, method, or resource which is not sufficiently precise or not sufficiently effective for its intended role or use."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "precise",
          "precise"
        ],
        [
          "effective",
          "effective"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively) A thing, person, method, or resource which is not sufficiently precise or not sufficiently effective for its intended role or use."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
      "word": "鈍器"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "dùnqì",
      "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
      "word": "钝器"
    },
    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "stump genstand"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
      "word": "tylppä esine"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "arme contondante"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "instrument contondant"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "outil contondant"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "corpo contundente"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "tępe narzędzie"
    },
    {
      "code": "ro",
      "lang": "Romanian",
      "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "instrument contondent"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "tupóje orúdije",
      "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "тупо́е ору́дие"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "tillhygge"
    }
  ],
  "word": "blunt instrument"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-03-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-03-01 using wiktextract (68773ab and 5f6ddbb). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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