hammer Hear it!

hammer Definition

ham·mer (ham′ər)

noun

  1. a tool for pounding, usually consisting of a metal head fastened across one end of a handle: one end of the head may be a pronged claw for pulling nails
  2. a thing like this tool in shape or use; specif.,
    1. the mechanism that strikes the firing pin or percussion cap in a firearm
    2. a device for striking a bell, gong, metal bar, etc. to make a sound
    3. any of the felt-covered mallets that strike against the strings of a piano
    4. a high-speed, hammering power tool fitted with a metal block or chisel, for shaping metal, breaking up paved surfaces, etc.
  3. the malleus, one of the three bones of the middle ear
  4. an auctioneer's gavel
  5. a metal ball weighing usually sixteen pounds, hung from a wire handle and thrown for distance in a track-and-field competition

Etymology: ME hamer < OE hamor, akin to Ger hammer, ON hamarr, crag, cliff < IE *omor-, stone hammer < base *ak-m- < a-, sharp, sharp stone > Gr akmē, point, akmōn, anvil

transitive verb

  1. to strike repeatedly with or as with a hammer
  2. to make or fasten with a hammer
  3. to drive, force, or shape with or as with hammer blows to hammer an idea into someone's head

intransitive verb

to strike repeated blows with or as with a hammer

hammer Related Forms
ham′·merer noun
hammer Idioms

hammer and tongs

Etymology: with reference to the work of a blacksmith

with all one's might; very vigorously

hammer (away) at

  1. to work continuously or energetically at
  2. to keep emphasizing or talking about

hammer out

  1. to shape, construct, or produce by hammering
  2. to make flat by hammering
  3. to take out by or as by hammering
  4. to develop or work out by careful thought or repeated effort

under the hammer

Etymology: cf. hammer above

for sale at auction

hammer Synonyms

hammer

n.

maul, mallet, mace, club, gavel, sledge, peen, rammer, ram, flatter, nailer*, slug*, knocker*; see also stick.

Types of hammers include: claw, boilermaker's, bricklayer's, blacksmith's, machinist's, riveting, stone, spalling, prospecting, pneumatic, cross-peen, ball-peen, Exeter, joiner's, Canterbury claw, sealing, raising, welding, rawhide-laced, veneering, blocking, die, Nasmyth, set, double, dental, tilt hammer, steam hammer, sledgehammer, triphammer, jackhammer.

hammer Synonyms

hammer

v.

strike, whack, bang, bear down upon, pound, pound away at; see also beat 2, hit 1.

hammer Usage Examples

Object

  • dulcimer: My mom plays classical piano and conga drums and hammer dulcimer and autoharp.
  • nail: Partly this may be a matter of teaching useful skills - how to hold a fork or hammer a nail.
  • coin: Considering this we now had a chance of finding a hammered coin or early artifact.

Preposition: on

  • anvil: Fx: Hammer on anvil Bloodnok: You filthy swine!

Adjective modifier

  • pneumatic: The main source of dust was from pneumatic hammers and at the time there was no known way of protecting against this.
  • geological: Indiana Gary ( of Tilley hat fame ) also returned with his pockets full of the products of the swinging of his geological hammer.

Converse of object

  • wield: And yet, to wield a hammer to a war-plane carries a sentence of ten years in an Irish prison.

Modifies a noun

  • sorter: We played with the happy street, the hammer shape sorter for a bit, some chase.
  • toe: A " hammer toe " may occur at the 2nd toe.
  • blow: A year later, the ailing town was dealt another hammer blow with the outbreak of an epidemic of plague.
  • drill: A pair of Black & Decker hammer drills were used to drill holes for 8mm stud anchors.
  • beam: The original hammer beam ceiling dating from 1908 will be revealed.

Preposition: in

  • nail: He's shown me how to saw wood and how to hammer in the nails properly.

Noun used with modifier

  • sledge: A light tap with a 7lb sledge hammer remedied the fault!
  • claw: A claw hammer is probably the best for general DIY.
  • lump: Thankfully it was thin enough to yield to the lump hammer.
  • steam: It was at this point the Atlantic breaker hit the surf board with the force of a steam hammer.
  • jack: It would probably be worth hiring a jack hammer for the job.
  • tilt: He may have seen this water driven tilt hammer used for crushing metal ore in Yorkshire.
hammer Quotes

Beethoven always sounds to me like the upsetting of a bag of nails, with here and there an also dropped hammer.

—Ruskin,John

It's weel wi' you gentles, that can sit in the house wi' handkerchers at your een when ye lose a friend; but the like o'us maun to our wark again, if our hearts were beating as hard as my hammer. 724

—Scott, Sir Walter

Ingeneral, therefore, color isa means ofexerting a direct influenceuponthesoul.Coloristhekeyboard.The eyeis the hammer. The soul is the piano, with its many strings.

—Kandinsky,Wassily

I was never an Angry Young Man. I am angry only when I hit my thumb with a hammer.

—Amis, Sir Kingsley

She taught me what her uncle once taught her: How easily the biggest coal block split If you got the grain and hammer angled right. The sound of that relaxed alluring blow, Its co-opted and obliterated echo, Taught me to hit, taught me to loosen, Taught me between the hammer and the block To face the music. Teach me now to listen, To strike it rich behind the linear black.

—Heaney, SeamusJustin

I care not whether a man isgood or evil; all that I care Is whether he is a wise man or a fool.Go! put off Holiness, And put on intellect, or my thunderous hammer shall drive thee, To wrath which thou condemnest, till thou obey my voice.

—Blake,William

Then Jael Heber'swifetook anail ofthetent, and took an hammer inher hand, and went softly untohimand smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.

—Bible (Old Testament)

He asked for water, and she brought him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish. She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen's hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples. At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead. The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice,Why is his chariot so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariots?

—Bible (Old Testament)