as in violent
marked by bursts of destructive force or intense activity
the scuffle escalated into a hammer-and-tongs fight
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in sharply
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Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of hammer and tongs
Chris Wheatley, Longreads, 16 July 2024
The action on Nevarro is crisp and well-presented, highlighted by the Armorer taking out the sniper’s nest singlehandedly with only her hammer and tongs as weapons.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 29 Mar. 2023
The two conservative groups that brought the case were targeted by Harris in 2012-13, right around the time the IRS was going hammer and tongs after Tea Party groups.
—Dan McLaughlin, National Review, 1 July 2021
Two teams who seem destined to slug it out in the lower reaches of the table this season going hammer and tongs at each other never makes for a good watch.
—SI.com, 18 Sep. 2019
With two moderate Pyrenean climbs, Thursday’s Stage 12 from Toulouse, where cassoulet and rugby are both big, wasn’t tough enough for Thomas and his rivals to go at each other hammer and tongs.
—Washington Post, 18 July 2019
The way to stand out from the others is to go hammer and tongs for the opponents’ jugulars, or to try to sound more extreme than the others.
—Jim Jones, idahostatesman, 18 May 2018
Adjective
In 1971, authors Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal went at it hammer and tongs live on late-night TV in a showdown that allegedly spilled over into violence.
—Chris Wheatley, Longreads, 16 July 2024
The action on Nevarro is crisp and well-presented, highlighted by the Armorer taking out the sniper’s nest singlehandedly with only her hammer and tongs as weapons.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 29 Mar. 2023
The two conservative groups that brought the case were targeted by Harris in 2012-13, right around the time the IRS was going hammer and tongs after Tea Party groups.
—Dan McLaughlin, National Review, 1 July 2021
Two teams who seem destined to slug it out in the lower reaches of the table this season going hammer and tongs at each other never makes for a good watch.
—SI.com, 18 Sep. 2019
With two moderate Pyrenean climbs, Thursday’s Stage 12 from Toulouse, where cassoulet and rugby are both big, wasn’t tough enough for Thomas and his rivals to go at each other hammer and tongs.
—Washington Post, 18 July 2019
The way to stand out from the others is to go hammer and tongs for the opponents’ jugulars, or to try to sound more extreme than the others.
—Jim Jones, idahostatesman, 18 May 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hammer and tongs
Adjective
-
With words infallibly falling short, Pritam mingled realism with a fragmentary style of narration that meshes together social encounters, violent episodes, vivid metaphors, disturbing dreams, memories, intimate self-reflections, and introspection on society.—
JSTOR Daily,
JSTOR Daily,
30 Oct. 2025
-
Once embroiled in conflict, participants and spectators layer on more stories to make sense of their relationship to its violent cauldron.—
Elizabeth D. Samet,
Foreign Affairs,
29 Oct. 2025
Adverb
-
Coffee prices have been increasing sharply since the start of this year.—
Preston Fore,
Fortune,
25 Oct. 2025
-
The number of foreign residents has risen sharply in recent years, reaching a record 3 percent of the population in 2024, as Tokyo cautiously loosened visa rules for workers in key industries such as manufacturing, agriculture, and caregiving.—
Micah McCartney,
MSNBC Newsweek,
25 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Just a big ferocious ball of meat, claws, and teeth.—
Fran Ruiz,
Space.com,
31 Oct. 2025
-
Though the storm did not make a direct hit on Haiti, its ferocious rains caused rivers to flood and jump their banks.—
Jacqueline Charles,
Miami Herald,
31 Oct. 2025
Adverb
-
There are still plenty of people who would disagree violently with that statement.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
30 Oct. 2025
-
In August, during one of those stops, ICE agents arrested Alice Correia Barbosa, a trans woman from Brazil, violently pulling her from her car while repeatedly misgendering her.—
Colleen Hamilton,
Them.,
30 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
The rebound in corporate profitability was largely helped by Beijing’s policies aimed at curtailing fierce price competition across industrial sectors, at a time when deflation in producer prices stretched into its third year.—
Anniek Bao,
CNBC,
27 Oct. 2025
-
The eyewall generally produces the fiercest winds and heaviest rainfall, according to Deanna Hence, a professor of climate, meteorology and atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.—
NPR,
NPR,
27 Oct. 2025
Adverb
-
Jennifer Lawrence is fiercely private about her personal life, but the No Hard Feelings star just got candid about her experience with postpartum anxiety.—
Korin Miller,
SELF,
28 Oct. 2025
-
Hailing from writer-director Niki Byrne, The Julia Set has One Battle After Another breakout Infiniti playing Julia, a talented mathematician in a fiercely competitive academic environment.—
Matt Grobar,
Deadline,
28 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
That’s how Gibson and Smith both ended up in prison, each furious under the impression that the other had put them there.—
Omar Jimenez,
CNN Money,
26 Oct. 2025
-
Roschman and Billitier immediately called Ozer, furious.—
Steve Belanger,
HollywoodReporter,
23 Oct. 2025
Adverb
-
But the Houston Police Department and Mayor Whitmire have vehemently refuted the serial killer conspiracy theories and insist the deaths aren’t connected.—
Dalia Faheid,
CNN Money,
27 Oct. 2025
-
With the most to lose, pretty much the entire city council is vehemently opposed.—
Kim Velsey,
Curbed,
24 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Hammer and tongs.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hammer%20and%20tongs. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025.
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