| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| hammer |
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| SYLLABICATION: | ham·mer |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  h m  r |
| NOUN: | 1. A hand tool that has a handle with a perpendicularly attached head of metal or other heavy rigid material, and is used for striking or pounding. 2. A tool or device similar in function or action to this striking tool, as: a. The part of a gunlock that hits the primer or firing pin or explodes the percussion cap and causes the gun to fire. b. Music One of the padded wooden pieces of a piano that strikes the strings. c. A part of an apparatus that strikes a gong or bell, as in a clock. 3. Anatomy See malleus. 4. Sports A metal ball weighing 16 pounds (7.2 kilograms) and having a long wire or wooden handle by which it is thrown for distance in track-and-field competition. 5. A small mallet used by auctioneers. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: ham·mered, ham·mer·ing, ham·mers
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To hit, especially repeatedly, with or as if with a hammer; pound. See synonyms at beat. 2. To beat into a shape with or as if with a hammer: hammered out the dents in the fender; hammered out a contract acceptable to both sides. 3. To put together, fasten, or seal, particularly with nails, by hammering. 4. To force upon by constant repetition: hammered the information into the students' heads. 5a. To defeat soundly. b. To inflict a heavy loss or damage on. | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To deal repeated blows with or as if with a hammer; pummel: “Wind hammered at us violently in gusts” (Thor Heyerdahl). 2. To undergo beating in the manner of a hammer: My pulse hammered. 3. Informal To keep at something continuously: hammered away at the problem. | | IDIOM: | under the hammer For sale at an auction. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English hamer, from Old English hamor. See ak- in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | hammer·er —NOUN
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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