Meaning of body blow | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A severely injurious or damaging physical strike or impact.
2. A hard punch struck to the torso.
3. A serious setback; a traumatizing event which prevents or hinders continuation of an activity.
   broadly, idiomatic

Equivalents

Examples

“The fight⟳ is not all one-sided. Lion is taking a savage beating as the two flagships trade⟳ body blows almost independent of the furious carronade going on behind them.”

“There are numerous near misses and various secondary-battery shells flying and setting small fires and causing shrapnel damage⟳ to both ships... but these are somewhat irrelevant compared to the body blows that they're dishing out to each other at the moment.”

“He led at Berks's head, as he came rushing in, and missed him, receiving a severe body blow⟳ in return⟳.”

“"I can hardly exaggerate the body blow⟳ to the Service such a decision would give⟳. Nobody will believe⟳ in it again."”

“The polio vaccination program⟳ took a body blow⟳ last⟳ spring⟳ when the disease developed in children injected with vaccine from the Cutter Laboratories of Berkeley, Calif.”

“And the government received a psychological body-blow with the crushing defeat⟳ of the Blakeney government in neighboring Saskatchewan.”

“[D]rone strikes . . . have⟳ delivered body blows to Al Qaeda's leadership in the tribal areas of northern Pakistan without risking a single American soldier on the ground.”

CEFR level