Hammer Definition

hămər
hammered, hammering, hammers
noun
hammers
A hand tool consisting of a handle with a head of metal or other heavy rigid material that is attached at a right angle, used for striking or pounding.
American Heritage
A tool or device similar in function or action to this striking tool, as:
American Heritage
The malleus, one of the three bones of the middle ear.
Webster's New World
A metal ball weighing usually sixteen pounds, hung from a wire handle and thrown for distance in a track-and-field competition.
Webster's New World
An auctioneer's gavel.
Webster's New World
verb
hammered, hammering, hammers
To hit, especially repeatedly, with a hammer; pound.
American Heritage
To strike repeatedly with or as with a hammer.
Webster's New World
To assault with military force.
Hammered the position with artillery shells.
American Heritage
To drive, force, or shape with or as with hammer blows.
To hammer an idea into someone's head.
Webster's New World
To make or fasten with a hammer.
Webster's New World
idiom
under the hammer
  • For sale at an auction.
American Heritage
hammer and tongs
  • with all one's might; very vigorously
Webster's New World
hammer (away) at
  • to work continuously or energetically at
  • to keep emphasizing or talking about
Webster's New World
hammer out
  • to shape, construct, or produce by hammering
  • to make flat by hammering
Webster's New World
under the hammer
  • for sale at auction
Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Hammer

Noun

Singular:
hammer
Plural:
hammers

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Hammer

Origin of Hammer

  • From Middle English hamer, Old English hamor, from Proto-Germanic *hamaraz (compare West Frisian hammer, Low German Hamer, Dutch hamer, German Hammer, Danish hammer, Swedish hammare). The Germanic *hamaraz "tool with a stone head" derives from a Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱmoros (compare Sanskrit [script?] (aśmará, “stony”)), itself a derivation from *h₂éḱmō (“stone”).

    From Wiktionary

  • For *h₂éḱmō (“stone”), compare Lithuanian akmuõ, Russian камень (kamen'), Serbo-Croatian kamēn, Albanian kmesë 'sickle', Ancient Greek ἄκμων (akmōn, “meteor rock, anvil”), Avestan [script?] (asman), Sanskrit अश्मन् (aśman)) (root *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”)).

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English hamer from Old English hamor ak- in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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