hammer

Noun

1. A tool with a heavy head and a handle used for pounding.
2. The act of using a hammer to hit something.
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.
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.
10. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis) Ellipsis of hammer headline.
11. The accelerator pedal.
12. A moving part of a firearm that strikes the firing pin to discharge a gun.
13. (broadly, slang) A handgun.

Verb

1. To strike repeatedly with a hammer, some other implement, the fist, etc.
2. To form or forge with a hammer; to shape by beating.
3. (figuratively) To emphasize a point repeatedly.
4. (usually) To hit particularly hard.
5. (intransitive, slang) To ride very fast.
6. (intransitive) To strike internally, as if hit by a hammer.
7. (figuratively, slang, transitive) To defeat (a person, a team) resoundingly.
8. (slang, transitive) To make high demands on (a system or service).
9. (transitive) To declare (a person) a defaulter on the stock exchange.
10. (transitive) To beat down the price of (a stock), or depress (a market).
11. (colloquial, transitive) To have hard sex with.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈhæm.ə(ɹ)/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: hamer

Inherited from Old English: hamor

Cognate with Western Frisian: hammer

Cognate with Low German: Hamer

Cognate with Dutch: hamer

Cognate with German: Hammer

Cognate with Danish: hammer

Cognate with Swedish: hammare

In summary

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.

Synonyms

mallet

pound

💷

beat

forge

hit

nail

malleus

cock

knock

strike

gavel

sledgehammer

maul

tap

drive

thresh

thump

bang

power hammer

thrash

beetle

🪲

hammer throw

hammer-on

knob

iron club

batter

drive a nail

iron

thunder

🌩️

hammering

wallop

blacksmith’s hammer

pulsate

flail

club

punch

👊

drum

🥁

pounding

mall

ram

🐏

drop hammer

drive in

buffet

drive home

break

devise

depress

box

📦

defeat

crush

Translations

marteau

Hammer

🔨

martillo

🔨

martello

🔨

hamer

🔨

martelo

🔨

młot

martell

🔨

σφυρί

çekiç

🔨

młotek

malleus

🔨

martellare

🔨

marteler

martelar

🔨

Sentences

Hold the hammer near the end to drive the nail .