Take a sledgehammer to crack a nut

This expression meaning to use unnecessary measures to tackle small problems is originally American from the mid-19th century, from the obvious allusion to using a very large, heavy hammer to crack open something as small as a nut. Incidentally, sledge is an Old English word for a heavy hammer and dates from before 1150. Sledgehammer dates from 1495 and means a very large, heavy hammer, presumably to distinguish it from an ordinary, smaller hammer.