hammer Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the part of a gunlock that strikes the percussion cap when the trigger is pulled
    cock.
  2. noun a hand tool with a heavy rigid head and a handle; used to deliver an impulsive force by striking
  3. noun the ossicle attached to the eardrum
    malleus.
  4. noun a light drumstick with a rounded head that is used to strike such percussion instruments as chimes, kettledrums, marimbas, glockenspiels, etc.
    mallet.
  5. noun a heavy metal sphere attached to a flexible wire; used in the hammer throw
  6. noun a striker that is covered in felt and that causes the piano strings to vibrate
  7. noun a power tool for drilling rocks
    power hammer.
  8. noun the act of pounding (delivering repeated heavy blows)
    pounding; pound; hammering.
    • the sudden hammer of fists caught him off guard
    • the pounding of feet on the hallway
  9. verb beat with or as if with a hammer
    • hammer the metal flat
  10. verb create by hammering
    forge.
    • hammer the silver into a bowl
    • forge a pair of tongues

WordNet

Ham"mer noun
Etymology
OE. hamer, AS. hamer, hamor; akin to D. hamer, G. & Dan. hammer, Sw. hammare, Icel. hamarr, hammer, crag, and perh. to Gr. anvil, Skr. aman stone.
Definitions
  1. An instrument for driving nails, beating metals, and the like, consisting of a head, usually of steel or iron, fixed crosswise to a handle.
    With busy hammers closing rivets up. Shak.
  2. Something which in firm or action resembles the common hammer; as: (a) That part of a clock which strikes upon the bell to indicate the hour. (b) The padded mallet of a piano, which strikes the wires, to produce the tones. (c) (Anat.) The malleus. See under Ear. (Gun.) That part of a gunlock which strikes the percussion cap, or firing pin; the cock; formerly, however, a piece of steel covering the pan of a flintlock musket and struck by the flint of the cock to ignite the priming. (e) Also, a person of thing that smites or shatters; as, St. Augustine was the hammer of heresies.
    He met the stern legionaries [of Rome] who had been the "massive iron hammers" of the whole earth. J. H. Newman.
Ham"mer transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Hammered ; present participle & verbal noun Hammering
Definitions
  1. To beat with a hammer; to beat with heavy blows; as, to hammer iron.
  2. To form or forge with a hammer; to shape by beating. "Hammered money." Dryden.
  3. To form in the mind; to shape by hard intellectual labor; -- usually with out.
    Who was hammering out a penny dialogue. Jeffry.
Ham"mer intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To be busy forming anything; to labor hard as if shaping something with a hammer.
    Whereon this month I have hammering. Shak.
  2. To strike repeated blows, literally or figuratively.
    Blood and revenge are hammering in my head. Shak.

Webster 1913