jackhammer

plural jackhammers

1. A portable percussive power tool that combines a hammer and chisel used to drill or break hard matter, for instance rock or concrete.

   Synonyms: pneumatic drill

2. figurativelySomething that is very strong but also very rigid.

   A new skiercross pro tour is on the docket, as well as freeskiing. Just like racing, both require strong but supple legs rather than jackhammer quads.

   2006 September 28, Skiing

present singular third person jackhammers · participle present jackhammering · participle past jackhammered · past jackhammered

1. intransitiveTo use a jackhammer.

   Early the next day a crew came to fix the street. Vernon was out there at once, watching them jackhammer and haul the asphalt […]

   1985, Don DeLillo, chapter 33, in White Noise, Penguin, published 1986, page 254

2. transitiveTo break (something) using a jackhammer.

   In the morning, the street is being jackhammered up.

   2002, Emily Schultz, “Foam”, in Black Coffee Night, Toronto: Insomniac Press, page 12

   1 more example

   The foundations for the barrier had been jackhammered away; the piles of broken concrete were just left alongside the road.

   1991, Peter Laufer, chapter 9, in Iron Curtain Rising, San Francisco: Mercury House, page 171

3. transitiveTo form (something) using a jackhammer.

   He was standing at a work table he’d jackhammered from a boulder, placidly sculpting a rose on its work surface.

   2009, Kage Baker, chapter 27, in The Empress of Mars, New York: Tom Doherty Associates, page 258

   2 more examples

   Small ledges had been jackhammered at each end of the crater and timbers bolted into them, forming abutments of the bridge that was to come.

   1944, Ernie Pyle, chapter 6, in Brave Men, New York: Henry Holt, page 69

   Richmond already spent tax money on an engineering department whose employees parked their trucks in the street, jackhammered holes in the pavement, and repaired storm sewers […]

   1988, Scott C. Davis, chapter 3, in The World of Patience Gromes: Making and Unmaking a Black Community, Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, page 49

4. figurativelyintransitiveTo move like a jackhammer.

   […] a bolt of lightning jackhammered across the sky, interrupting his dream.

   1977, Betsy Haynes, chapter 2, in The Ghost of the Gravestone Hearth, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, page 20

   2 more examples

   When he jackhammered into her, she clutched the bedspread and braced herself for the onslaught.

   2003, Beverly Barton, chapter 16, in Grace under Fire, New York: Silhouette, pages 218–219

   His left knee jackhammered under the desk, his right hand patted a steady bongo beat on the top.

   2010, Dennis Lehane, chapter 7, in Moonlight Mile, New York: William Morrow, page 69

   1. figurativelyintransitiveTo beat hard, to pound. (of the heart or pulse)

      […] he lay rigid, his heart jackhammering, telling himself that there was nothing out there, nothing […]

      1995, Margaret Wild, chapter 2, in Beast, New York: Scholastic, page 7

      1 more example

      The paranoia came on pretty damn strong for this early in the morning, his high blood pressure—160 over 90 at twenty-two—jackhammering in his wrists, his thoughts caterwauling beneath the moment.

      2002, Tom Piccirilli, chapter 1, in The Night Class, New York: Leisure Books, page 7

5. figurativelytransitiveTo move (something) like a jackhammer.

   Then, before the lumberjack had a chance to react, Dad grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and jackhammered his head into the bar.

   2006, Danielle Trussoni, chapter 4, in Falling through the Earth, New York: Henry Holt, page 44

   1 more example

   He […] drew his knees toward his chest as far as the cramped space would allow, and jackhammered his feet into the forward wall of the trunk, which was formed by the backseat of the car.

   1999, Dean Koontz, chapter 68, in False Memory, New York: Bantam, published 2000, page 611

6. figurativelytransitiveTo strike (something) repeatedly with force, to pound.

   He didn’t make love to her; he jackhammered her.

   1985, Andrew Coburn, chapter 20, in Sweetheart, London: Secker & Warburg, page 197

   2 more examples

   Guam-based B-52 bombers, newly modified to haul 60,000 lbs. of bombs each, jackhammered a Viet Cong radio and communications center 35 miles northeast of Saigon.

   1966 April 15, “Rolling Thunder”, in Time

   […] the thought jackhammered his heart and mind.

   1997, Richard Flanagan, chapter 78, in The Sound of One Hand Clapping, New York: Grove, published 2014