Meanings
- UScolloquialHow are you? (generally used between male speakers)
“Hiya, Dougie,” he said to Stiles, then to me: “Hiya, Paul, how’s your hammer hangin’? Sit down and take a load off.”
1993, William Styron, “Love Day”, in A Tidewater Morning: Three Tales from Youth, page 142 more examples
“Hello, Pop,” a young clammer said to the man in an adjoining boat, a sullen old man in wet overalls, “how’s your hammer hanging?”
1943, Joseph Mitchell, “A Mess of Clams”, in McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon, page 201Porter, the only other colored guy on the shift, used to hail him—“Hey, Fred, how’s your hammer hanging?” And he’d mount the stool and holler back, “It ain’t ruined my crease none.”
1980, Toni Cade Bambara, The Salt Eaters, page 79 - UScolloquialHow’s your sex life?
“Hey, Sam, you gettin’ much?” ¶ “Huh?” I said. […] ¶ “I said, ‘How’s your hammer hanging?’” ¶ “It’s hanging,” I said, pulling myself back to the present. “That’s the trouble.”
1976, Jack Olsen, chapter 1, in Massy’s Game, page 321 more example
Micheaux was still willing to test the censors, with lines like “How’s your hammer hanging?” and “You might be able to ‘make’ her,” that the local authorities in some parts of the country were bound to notice.
2007, Patrick McGilligan, Oscar Micheaux, the Great and Only, page 332
Origin
The word hammer is explained as referring to the male genitalia. Akasha Gloria Hull identifies the expression as an African-American Vernacular English one.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
how's your hammer hanging. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/how's%20your%20hammer%20hanging
“how's your hammer hanging.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/how's%20your%20hammer%20hanging. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “how's your hammer hanging,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/how's%20your%20hammer%20hanging.
Source: how's your hammer hanging on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.