battering ram
5
6.0
- noun
- /ˈbætərɪŋ ræm/
:
ariete
- The gate smashes under the onslaught of the battering ram.
- battering ram through the door
- use a battering ram
- battering ram to break
Examples
-
Now, in regular motion, the battering ram breaks open the front door.
Fiction book (1995) -
We're going to need a battering ram.
-
We need towers and a battering ram!
-
Could we borrow a battering ram?
-
They got a battering ram.
-
The battering rams rip through the doors and the army of darkness pours into the courtyard.
Fiction book (1992) -
The doors are blasted inward by squads with steel battering rams.
Fiction book (2000) -
The soldiers advanced with a battering ram to break through the fortress gates.
-
A large battering ram made of heavy wood was used to demolish the old building's wall.
-
During the siege, the attackers prepared a battering ram to crash into the castle door.
Synonyms
18
5.4
A heavy tool that pushes posts or objects into the ground with strong blows
1
8.6
A heavy tool for hitting posts into the ground
How Forceful
- Specialized
6
4.2
61
3.1
5
6.0
35
3.9
45
2.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is transparently built from 'battering' (attacking with repeated blows) + 'ram' (a heavy striking device), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can infer a heavy object used to break down doors. The noun-noun composition is regular and cross-linguistically common, and the extended metaphorical sense ('a person or thing that forcefully overcomes obstacles') is also predictable from the parts.
Etymology
Battering ram comes from a simple war tool: a heavy log used to batter, meaning 'to hit again and again', while it was pushed to ram into a gate. So the image of a heavy thing hitting and breaking a door explains why we also call any person or thing that forcefully breaks through obstacles a 'battering ram'.