hamburger

USHAM-bur-gur/ˈhæmˌbɝ.ɡɚ/UKHAM-bur-guh/ˈhæmˌbɜː.ɡə/

7 meanings of hamburger

1
sandwichnouncountable or uncountable
A hot sandwich made from a patty of cooked ground beef or a meat substitute in a sliced bun, usually with salad vegetables, condiments, or both.
He topped his hamburger with lettuce, tomato, and a slice of cheddar.
The vegan cafe serves hamburgers built around a soy-based patty.
UsageOften shortened to burger: I ordered a burger and fries.
Similarburger
Note
The word is a shortening of Hamburger sandwich or Hamburger steak, with Hamburger taken from German, Hamburg plus -er. The ham in it comes from the city, not the meat, which is why a meat-substitute patty still makes a hamburger.
2
ground beefnoununcountable
Ground beef, particularly the kind sold to be formed into patties.
The recipe calls for a pound of lean hamburger and a diced onion.
He bought fresh hamburger from the butcher for the meatballs.
Similarmince
3
meat pattynouncountable or uncountable
A patty of ground beef, raw or cooked, of the kind served inside a sliced bun in a hamburger.
He seasoned the hamburger generously before setting it on the hot pan.
A well-cooked hamburger should rest a moment before it goes in the bun.
Similarpatty, burger
4
menu iconnouncountable or uncountableabbreviationellipsis
Ellipsis of hamburger button: the icon of three stacked horizontal lines that opens a hidden menu.
The designer moved the hamburger to the top-right of the screen.
Tapping the hamburger slides the navigation panel into view.
Note
A clipping from interface design. The full term is hamburger button, the button showing three parallel horizontal lines (≡) that opens a dropdown menu. Designers drop the head noun once the screen makes the meaning clear, so they speak of tapping or moving the hamburger. For readers outside the field, the full hamburger button is the safer choice.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
The interface term hamburger is shortened from hamburger button. en.wiktionary.org
A hamburger button displays three parallel horizontal lines and activates a dropdown menu. en.wiktionary.org
5
crushed fleshnouncolloquialUScountable or uncountable
An animal or human, or the flesh of one, that has been badly injured in an accident or conflict.
The surgeons found that the crushed limb had been turned to hamburger.
By the final round, the boxer's face was hamburger.
Similarpulp, mincemeat
Note
A grim figure of speech that compares mangled flesh to ground meat, carrying the raw ground beef over onto bodies. It is US colloquial and somewhat crude, so it suits casual talk, sports banter and mock threats rather than careful writing. It usually takes no article and follows turn into or make into: the truck turned the deer into hamburger. The verb puts the same image into action.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
The image connects badly injured flesh with hamburger meaning ground beef. en.wiktionary.org
The corresponding verb describes bodily injury. en.wiktionary.org

Less common meanings

6
wide paper foldnouncolloquialUScountable or uncountable
A fold that halves a rectangular sheet of paper across its width, producing a short, wide rectangle.
Fold the paper hamburger, then crease the edge firmly with your thumb.
A hamburger fold keeps the artwork on the outside of the card.
Note
An American classroom word that names a fold by the shape it makes: halving the sheet across its width leaves a short, squat rectangle. Grammatically it behaves less like a thing than like a description. It can follow the verb (fold it hamburger) or stand before fold (a hamburger fold). Outside the classroom, folded in half widthwise is the plainer phrasing.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
Hamburger fold is established in American classroom materials. files.eric.ed.gov
The name describes the short, wide result of folding paper in half widthwise. wpcdn.web.wsu.edu
7
badly injureverbcolloquialtransitive
To severely injure or mangle a fleshy part of the body.
The grinder will hamburger your fingers if you reach in without the guard.
She hamburgered her knee in the cycling crash last weekend.
Similarmangle, maul, shred
Note
Ground meat turned into a regular verb: hamburgered, hamburgering. Its objects are usually body parts, such as hands torn on coral in C. G. Morris and Hugh B. Cave's The Fightin'est Ship (1944), a face, or a forearm. John Nichols's The Nirvana Blues (1981) stretches it to a vehicle that mines might have destroyed with its driver inside. It shares its image with the crude noun for mangled flesh.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
C. G. Morris and Hugh B. Cave wrote The Fightin'est Ship, published in 1944. usni.org
The Fightin'est Ship uses hamburgered for hands injured while playing baseball on coral. en.wiktionary.org
John Nichols wrote The Nirvana Blues, published in 1981. en.wikipedia.org
The passage describes hypothetical destruction by mines that the vehicle did not trigger, rather than an actual mined vehicle. en.wiktionary.org

Practice

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Origin

A shortening of terms like "Hamburger sandwich" or "Hamburger steak," where Hamburger is borrowed from German Hamburger ("native of Hamburg"), from Hamburg plus the suffix -er.

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

Hamburger is a shortening of Hamburger sandwich or Hamburger steak. en.wiktionary.org
German Hamburger means a person from Hamburg and is formed from Hamburg plus -er. en.wiktionary.org