blunt instrument

English

Noun

blunt instrument (plural blunt instruments)

1. (literally) An object lacking sharp surfaces, especially as used to cause injury.
   • 1851, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, The Murdered Cousin:

     One deep wound had been inflicted upon the temple, apparently with some blunt instrument, which had penetrated the brain.

   • 1913, Sax Rohmer, chapter 8, in The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu:

     It had been struck by some heavy blunt instrument, but the skull was not broken.

2. (figuratively) A thing, person, method, or resource which is not sufficiently precise or not sufficiently effective for its intended role or use.
   • 1987, Iris Murdoch, in John Haffenden, Novelists in Interview, →ISBN, p. 202:

     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.

   • 2003 May 5, Aisha Labi, “The Runaway Bride”, in Time:

     The law is a woefully blunt instrument when it comes to domestic violence of all kinds.

   • 2008 January 12, “Passing The Devalued Buck”, in Newsweek, retrieved 12 June 2011:

     [T]he United States will continue to rely on dollar depreciation as a blunt instrument to fight all its economic battles.

   • 2011 January 29, Scott Shane, “Spotlight Again Falls on Web Tools and Change”, in New York Times, retrieved 12 June 2011:

     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.

   • 2022 January 12, Industry Insider, “Treasury demands cutbacks”, in RAIL, number 948, page 68:

     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.

Translations

object lacking sharp surfaces used to cause injury

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鈍器／钝器 (zh) (dùnqì)

• Danish: stump genstand c
• Finnish: tylppä esine
• French: arme contondante f, instrument contondant m, outil contondant m
• Italian: corpo contundente m
• Polish: tępe narzędzie n
• Romanian: instrument contondent n
• Russian: тупо́е ору́дие n (tupóje orúdije)
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can
• Swedish: tillhygge (sv) c

References

• “blunt instrument”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.