hammer

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.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhæm.ə(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -æmə(ɹ)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhæm.ɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

hammer (plural hammers)

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

2. The act of using a hammer to hit something.

   The nail is too loose—give it a hammer.

3. (anatomy) The malleus, a small bone of the middle ear.
4. (music) 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. (sports) A device made of a heavy steel ball attached to a length of wire, and used for throwing.
6. (curling) The last stone in an end.
7. (frisbee) A frisbee throwing style in which the disc is held upside-down with a forehand grip and thrown 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.

   • 1849, John Henry Newman, Discourses to Mixed Congregations:

     He met the stern legionaries [of Rome] who had been the massive iron hammers of the whole earth.

10. (journalism) Ellipsis of hammer headline.
    • 1981, Harry W. Stonecipher, Edward C. Nicholls, Douglas A. Anderson, Electronic Age News Editing, page 104:

      Hammers are, in essence, reverse kickers. Instead of being set in smaller type like kickers, hammers are set in larger type than headlines.

11. (motor racing) The accelerator pedal.
    • 1975, “Convoy”, in C.W. McCall, Chip Davis (lyrics), Black Bear Road, performed by C. W. McCall:

      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."

12. (firearms) A moving part of a firearm that strikes the firing pin to discharge a gun.
    • 2016, Doseone (lyrics and music), “Enter the Gungeon”, in Enter the Gungeon OST:

      Nonstop hammer cock, violent mannered shots land a lot

    • 2023 March 27, Helen Lewis, “How Did America’s Weirdest, Most Freedom-Obsessed State Fall for an Authoritarian Governor?”, in The Atlantic‎:

      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.

13. (African-American Vernacular, slang, loosely) A handgun.
    • 2018, U-God [Lamont Hawkins], Raw: My Journey Into The Wu-Tang, New York, N.Y.: Picador, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 119:

      Another one of my peoples came to me with a plan. "Yo, man, I need to get some money. I need to borrow that hammer." So I gave him my nickel-plated .357 with a wooden handle, and off he went to stand by the weed spot.

• mallet

hammer (third-person singular simple present hammers, present participle hammering, simple past and past participle hammered)

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.

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 198:

     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.

2. To form or forge with a hammer; to shape by beating.
   • 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:

     hammered money

3. (figuratively) To emphasize a point repeatedly.
4. (sports, etc.) To hit particularly hard.
   • 2010 December 28, Marc Vesty, “Stoke 0 - 2 Fulham”, in BBC‎:

     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 for the season and stunning the home crowd.

   • 2023 January 25, Howard Johnston, “Peter Kelly: August 2 1944-December 28 2022”, in RAIL, number 975, page 47:

     "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 absolutely hammering the keyboard."

5. (cycling, intransitive, slang) To ride very fast.
   • 2011, Tim Moore, French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France, page 58:

     Fifteen minutes later, leaving a vapour trail of kitchen smells, I hammered into Obterre.

   • 2019 December 18, Richard Clinnick, “Traction transition: HST to Azuma”, in Rail, page 32:

     Running at line-speed, well over 100mph, it hammers through Doncaster on its way south to London.

6. (intransitive) To strike internally, as if hit by a hammer.

   I could hear the engine’s valves hammering once the timing rod was thrown.

7. (transitive, slang, figuratively, sports) To defeat (a person, a team) resoundingly

   We hammered them 5-0!

8. (transitive, slang, computing) To make high demands on (a system or service).
   • 1995, Optimizing Windows NT, volume 4, page 226:

     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, […]

9. (transitive, finance) To declare (a person) a defaulter on the stock exchange.
10. (transitive, finance) To beat down the price of (a stock), or depress (a market).
11. (sex, transitive, colloquial) To have hard sex with.

    Synonym: pound

    Danielle hammered Mary til she came.

    • 2012, John Locke, Wish List (Donovan Creed), John Locke Books, →ISBN, page 19:

      A short time later I’ve got Lissie in bed. I’m really going after it, really hammering her.

• Jonathon Green (2024) “hammer n.¹”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang

From Old Norse hamarr, from Proto-Germanic *hamaraz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱmoros, from *h₂éḱmō (“stone”).

• IPA^(key): /hamər/, [ˈhɑmɐ]

hammer c (singular definite hammeren, plural indefinite hammere or hamre)

1. hammer

• IPA^(key): /ˈhamɐ/
• Homophone: Hammer

hammer

1. (colloquial, regional) Contraction of haben wir.

   Da hammer jetz' keine Zeit für.

   We don't have time for that now.

This contraction is common throughout central Germany, southern Germany, and Austria. It is only occasionally heard in northern Germany.

• simmer

hammer

1. Alternative form of hamer

From Old Norse hamarr, from Proto-Germanic *hamaraz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱmoros, from *h₂éḱmō (“stone”).

• hammar

hammer m (definite singular hammeren, indefinite plural hammere or hamrer, definite plural hammerne or hamrene)

1. a hammer (tool)

• hamre (verb)

hammer m

1. indefinite plural of ham

• “hammer” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Unadapted borrowing from English hammer.

hammer m (plural hammers)

1. (ultimate frisbee) hammer

From Old Frisian hamar, from Proto-Germanic *hamaraz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱmoros, from *h₂éḱmō (“stone”).

hammer c (plural hammers, diminutive hammerke)

1. hammer

• “hammer”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011