hammer

A tool with a heavy head and a handle used for pounding.

Noun

  1. A tool with a heavy head and a handle used for pounding.
    • Bobby used a hammer and nails to fix the two planks together.
    • Men shove statues off pedestals, and use hammers and drills to destroy what’s left. - 2015 February 26, Ben Wedeman, Dana Ford, “Video shows ISIS militants destroying antiquities in Iraq”, in CNN, archived from the...
  2. The act of using a hammer to hit something.
    • The nail is too loose—give it a hammer.
  3. The malleus, a small bone of the middle ear.
  4. In a piano or dulcimer, a piece of wood covered in felt that strikes the string.
    • The sound the piano makes comes from the hammers striking the strings
  5. A device made of a heavy steel ball attached to a length of wire, and used for throwing.
  6. The last stone in an end.
  7. A frisbee throw in which the disc is held upside-down with a forehand grip and thrown forwards above the head.
  8. Part of a clock that strikes upon a bell to indicate the hour.
  9. One who, or that which, smites or shatters.
    • St. Augustine was the hammer of heresies.
    • He met the stern legionaries [of Rome] who had been the massive iron hammers of the whole earth. - 1849, John Henry Newman, Discourses to Mixed Congregations:
  10. Ellipsis of hammer headline.
    • Hammers are, in essence, reverse kickers. Instead of being set in smaller type like kickers, hammers are set in larger type than headlines. - 1981, Harry W. Stonecipher, Edward C. Nicholls, Douglas A. Anderson,...
  11. The accelerator pedal.
    • We is headin' for bear on I-one-oh 'Bout a mile outta Shaky Town. I says, "Pig Pen, this here's the Rubber Duck And I'm about to put the hammer down." - 1975, “Convoy”, in C.W. McCall, Chip Davis (lyrics), Black Bear...
  12. A moving part of a firearm that strikes the firing pin to discharge a gun.
    • But the Englishman was close to him—so close that his hand reached the leveled barrel a fraction of a second before the hammer fell upon the cartridge, and the bullet that was intended for Tarzan’s heart whirred...
    • Nonstop hammer cock, violent mannered shots land a lot - 2016, Doseone, “Enter the Gungeon”, in Enter the Gungeon OST:
    • In the course of a single month this year, the following news reports emanated from Florida: A gun enthusiast in Tampa built a 55-foot backyard pool shaped like a revolver, with a hot tub in the hammer. - 2023 March 27,...

Origin

From Middle English hamer, from Old English hamor, from Proto-West Germanic *hamar, from Proto-Germanic *hamaraz (“tool with a stone head”) (compare West Frisian hammer, Low German Hamer, Dutch hamer, German Hammer, Danish hammer, Swedish hammare). This is traditionally ascribed to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱmoros, from *h₂éḱmō (“stone”), but see *hamaraz for further discussion. (declare a defaulter on the stock exchange): Originally signalled by knocking with a wooden mallet.

Forms

hammers

Related

mallet

Derived

Abinger Hammer adze-eye hammer air hammer atmospheric hammer ball-peen hammer ball peen hammer ball-pein hammer ban hammer between the hammer and the anvil bott hammer brick hammer bring down the hammer bring to the hammer bush hammer claw hammer claw-hammer coat club hammer coal hammer crack hammer cross peen hammer dead-stroke hammer drilling hammer drop hammer drop the hammer

Verb

  1. To strike repeatedly with a hammer, some other implement, the fist, etc.
    • Tony hammered on the door to try to get him to open.
    • Fresleven - that was the fellow’s name, a Dane - thought himself wronged somehow in the bargain, so he went ashore and started to hammer the chief of the village with a stick. - 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart...
    • "He's been waiting to jump my brain-bones since I left R&E. I could feel him hammering on the door." She trotted to the nearest wall and knocked on it for emphasis. "But whatever it is that makes us remember the good...
  2. To form or forge with a hammer; to shape by beating.
    • hammered money - 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
  3. To emphasize a point repeatedly.
  4. To hit particularly hard.
    • This time the defender was teed up by Andrew Johnson's short free-kick on the edge of the box and Baird hammered his low drive beyond Begovic's outstretched left arm and into the bottom corner, doubling his goal tally...
    • "My memory of him in the office at Peterborough was the ferocious nature of his typing, on a manual machine of course. This was long before the days of desktop publishing, and you could hear him down the corridor...
  5. To ride very fast.
    • Fifteen minutes later, leaving a vapour trail of kitchen smells, I hammered into Obterre. - 2011, Tim Moore, French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France, page 58:
    • Running at line-speed, well over 100mph, it hammers through Doncaster on its way south to London. - 2019 December 18, Richard Clinnick, “Traction transition: HST to Azuma”, in Rail, page 32:
  6. To strike internally, as if hit by a hammer.
    • I could hear the engine’s valves hammering once the timing rod was thrown.
  7. To defeat (a person, a team) resoundingly.
    • We hammered them 5-0!
  8. To make high demands on (a system or service).
    • So we'll be hammering the server in an unrealistic manner, but we'll see how the additional clients affect overall performance. We'll add two, three, four, and then five clients, […] - 1995, Optimizing Windows NT,...
  9. To declare (a person) a defaulter on the stock exchange.
  10. To beat down the price of (a stock), or depress (a market).
  11. To have hard sex with.
    • A short time later I’ve got Lissie in bed. I’m really going after it, really hammering her. - 2012, John Locke, Wish List (Donovan Creed), John Locke Books, →ISBN, page 19:

    Synonyms: pound smash

Forms

hammers hammering hammered

Related

hammer out

Derived

hammerable hammered hammerer hammer home hammer out hammer up mishammer outhammer rehammer sledgehammer the nail that sticks out gets hammered down