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.

   1 more example

   Men shove statues off pedestals, and use hammers and drills to destroy what’s left.

   2015 February 26, Ben Wedeman, Dana Ford, “Video shows ISIS militants destroying antiquities in Iraq”, in CNN, archived from the original on 01 Feb 2023

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

   The nail is too loose—give it a hammer.

3. anatomyThe malleus, a small bone of the middle ear.
4. entertainmentIn 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. hobbiesA device made of a heavy steel ball attached to a length of wire, and used for throwing.
6. ball gamesThe 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.

   St. Augustine was the hammer of heresies.

   1 more example

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

   1849, John Henry Newman, Discourses to Mixed Congregations

10. abbreviationellipsisjournalismEllipsis of hammer headline.

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

    1981, Harry W. Stonecipher, Edward C. Nicholls, Douglas A. Anderson, Electronic Age News Editing, page 104

11. hobbiesThe accelerator pedal.

    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."

    1975, “Convoy”, in C.W. McCall, Chip Davis (lyrics), Black Bear Road, performed by C. W. McCall

12. engineeringA moving part of a firearm that strikes the firing pin to discharge a gun.

    Nonstop hammer cock, violent mannered shots land a lot

    2016, Doseone, “Enter the Gungeon”, in Enter the Gungeon OST

    2 more examples

    But the Englishman was close to him—so close that his hand reached the leveled barrel a fraction of a second before the hammer fell upon the cartridge, and the bullet that was intended for Tarzan’s heart whirred harmlessly above his head.

    1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 219

    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.

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

13. broadlyslangAfrican-American VernacularA handgun.

    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.

    2018, U-God [Lamont Hawkins], Raw: My Journey Into The Wu-Tang, New York, N.Y.: Picador, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 119

present singular third person hammers · participle present hammering · participle past hammered · past 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.

   2 more examples

   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.

   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

   "He's been waiting to jump my brain-bones since I left R&E. I could feel him hammering on the door." She trotted to the nearest wall and knocked on it for emphasis. "But whatever it is that makes us remember the good old days, it also makes us impossible to possess now. That's why Willie and I both woke up, and why Noè never got taken out by Mukami. So all I had to do was open my mind up to the guy, invite him in, then... gas the foyer, as it were."

   2023 October 14, HarryBlank, “Face Time”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 23 May 2024

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

   hammered money

   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

3. figurativelyTo emphasize a point repeatedly.
4. usuallyhobbiesTo hit particularly hard.

   "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."

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

   1 more example

   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.

   2010 December 28, Marc Vesty, “Stoke 0 - 2 Fulham”, in BBC

5. intransitiveslangcyclingTo ride very fast.

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

   2011, Tim Moore, French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France, page 58

   1 more example

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

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

6. intransitiveTo strike internally, as if hit by a hammer.

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

7. figurativelyslangtransitivehobbiesTo defeat (a person, a team) resoundingly.

   We hammered them 5-0!

8. slangtransitivecomputingTo make high demands on (a system or service).

   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, […]

   1995, Optimizing Windows NT, volume 4, page 226

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

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

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

    Synonyms: pound, smash

12. cookingTo overcook (something).

plural Hammers

1. ball gamessomeone connected with West Ham Football Club, as a fan, player, coach etc.

1. A surname.

   In the [David] Azerrad essay that [Josh] Hammer cited, Azerrad explains that Trump’s strength is “not that of a soldier who risks his life in combat or of a general who leads men into battle.”

   2021 December 1, David French, “The New Right’s Strange and Dangerous Cult of Toughness”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 11 Dec 2021