hammer
Pluralhammers
Verbhammers, hammering, hammered
Pluralhammers
Formshammers, hammering, hammered
- 1A hand tool with a heavy head fixed to a handle, used for pounding nails, breaking objects, or driving things into place.
He reached for a hammer to drive the stake into the ground.
The toolbox held two hammers and a heavy mallet.
Note
Most other meanings of the word, from a piano's felt striker to a gun's firing part, borrow the name from this tool's shape or its blow.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- A piano hammer is a felt-covered striker. en.wikipedia.org
- 2To strike something repeatedly, whether with a hammer, another implement, or the fist.
Protesters began to hammer on the locked gates with their fists.
The waves hammered the cliffs throughout the storm.
UsageTwo patterns: hammer on a door for loud, repeated blows, or hammer the thing itself: hammer a nail, hammered the cliffs.
Similarpound, batter, beat, bang, pummel
Note
With a direct object, the thing struck takes the blows itself, as when Joseph Conrad's Fresleven, in Heart of Darkness (1899), starts "to hammer the chief of the village with a stick." The transitive version focuses on the thing struck, and with a person or animal as object it often suggests harm.
- 3To stress a point again and again so that it is clearly understood or remembered.
The senator hammered the same message in every interview.
Good editors hammer one clear idea rather than many vague ones.
UsageOften hammer home a point, or hammer an idea into someone.
- 4To form or shape metal by beating it with a hammer, as in forging.
Smiths hammer red-hot steel into blades on the anvil.
The metalworker hammered the bronze sheet into a curved shield.
UsageOften hammer metal into a shape: hammer steel into blades.
Similarforge, beat, shape, fashion
Note
The shaping sense survives most visibly in the past participle used as an adjective. Hammered metal shows the marks of the beating, and Dryden's Virgil of 1697 speaks of hammered money, meaning coin struck by hand. Unlike simply striking something, the verb here focuses on the result: what is hammered has been given its form by the blows.
- 5A heavy steel ball attached to a length of wire, thrown for distance in track and field.
A thrower builds speed by turning before releasing the hammer.
The women's hammer weighs only a little more than half as much as the men's.
UsageAlso names the event: compete in the hammer, the hammer throw.
Note
Athletics keeps the name of the carpenter's tool for an implement that looks nothing like it: a heavy metal ball on a wire, held by a grip at the far end, whirled inside a circle and released for distance.
- 6The part of a gun's firing mechanism that moves forward to hit the firing pin and so discharge the weapon.
She cocked the hammer and waited for the signal.
On this revolver, the hammer must be cocked by hand before each shot.
UsageUsually cock the hammer or pull back the hammer.
Note
The usual verbs tell you how the part works. A shooter cocks the hammer, drawing it back, and on release it falls, as in Edgar Rice Burroughs's The Return of Tarzan (1913), where the hammer "fell upon the cartridge." The part also gives a revolver much of its recognizable outline.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Cocking the hammer draws it back; releasing it allows it to fall. ruger.com
- Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote The Return of Tarzan, whose narration includes the quoted wording. gutenberg.org
- The first book edition appeared in March 1915. The story was serialized in 1913; under the specified book-edition dating rule, use 1915. gutenberg.net.au
- An external hammer contributes to a revolver's outline. en.wikipedia.org
- 7To strike something with great force, especially a ball in a game or sport.
He hammered a low shot past the keeper from the edge of the box.
Top batters hammer fast deliveries to the boundary.
UsageUsually with a direction: hammer the ball into the net, hammer a shot past the keeper.
Similarsmash, blast, drive, slam, thump
Note
Sports reporting is where this sense is most at home, especially for shots and strikes: a BBC report of 2010 has a defender who "hammered his low drive" into the bottom corner. The force carries over to other hard, rapid striking too. A 2023 tribute in RAIL recalls a journalist audible down the corridor, "absolutely hammering" the keys of his manual typewriter.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- A BBC report dated 28 December 2010 describes defender Chris Baird hammering a low drive into the bottom corner, using the quoted wording. en.wiktionary.org
- A RAIL tribute published on 25 January 2023 recalls journalist Peter Kelly's loud typing on a manual machine and contains the phrase "absolutely hammering". en.wiktionary.org
- 8To defeat a person or team completely and by a wide margin.
The champions hammered every team they faced this season.
Pundits predicted the home side would hammer the newcomers.
UsageOften with the score: we hammered them 5-0.
Similarthrash, trounce, crush, rout, annihilate
- 9In a piano, a felt-covered piece of wood that strikes the strings to produce sound; also, a small handheld beater used to strike a dulcimer's strings.
Each hammer strikes a set of strings tuned to the same note.
Over time, the felt on the hammers hardens and the tone grows harsh.
Note
Here is the reason a piano is a struck-string instrument rather than a plucked one. Pressing a key drives a felt-covered hammer against the strings, and the hammer's mass and the density of its felt help shape both the volume and the color of the tone. The hammered dulcimer takes its name from the same striking action.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- A piano produces sound through strings struck by felt-covered hammers actuated by its keys. hub.yamaha.com
- Hammer mass contributes to the character of piano tone. my.ptg.org
- Hammer-felt density affects sound dynamics and tonal quality. steinway.com
- The name hammered dulcimer refers to its strings being struck with hammers. folkways-media.si.edu
- 10A person or thing that smites or shatters; a crushing, destructive force.
History remembered the conqueror as the hammer of the northern tribes.
Critics called the prosecutor a hammer who shattered every defense brought before her.
UsageUsually the hammer of someone or something: the hammer of heretics.
Similarscourge, destroyer, nemesis
Note
Medieval inquisitors such as Robert le Bougre were called the hammer of heretics. John Henry Newman, in 1849, described Rome's legionaries as "the massive iron hammers of the whole earth." Its natural home is rhetoric, sermons and history, where it is used to cast a person or power as a crushing force.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Robert le Bougre was a medieval inquisitor. en.wikipedia.org
- Robert le Bougre was called the hammer of heretics. en.wikipedia.org
- Newman used the quoted description of Roman legionaries. newmanreader.org
- The description dates to 1849; it appears in Discourses Addressed to Mixed Congregations, published that year. books.google.com
- 11To drive a stock's price or the overall market sharply lower.
Short sellers hammered the company's shares right after the earnings report.
Traders can hammer a stock the moment they sense weakness.
UsageOften passive in news: shares were hammered or got hammered.
Similarbatter, pummel, depress, sink
Oppositeboost
Note
Sellers can hammer a single company's shares, or bad news can hammer a whole market. The image is of repeated blows rather than a single fall. That makes it a stronger word than drop or decline, and it often implies that someone is pushing the price down rather than letting it slide.
Less common meanings
- 12To pound or throb forcefully inside the body, as though struck by a hammer.
His heart started to hammer as the elevator doors slid open.
Her temples hammered with each heartbeat after the long climb.
UsageMost often of the heart: my heart was hammering, his heart began to hammer.
Similarpound, throb, thump, race, pulse
Note
The pounding can come from inside a machine as well as inside a body. Engine valves are said to hammer when something has gone wrong, just as a heart hammers with fear or effort. The thing itself hammers, and the word suggests a hard, rhythmic beat that can be heard or felt.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Engine valves can produce a hammering sound when a mechanical fault occurs. en.wiktionary.org
- 13The malleus, a small bone in the middle ear that passes sound vibrations along.
Sound vibrations pass from the eardrum to the hammer and on to the next bone.
In the middle ear, the hammer links directly to the eardrum.
Similarmalleus
Note
Anatomists call it the malleus. Hammer is the plain English name, taken from the bone's rough resemblance to a mallet. It is the outermost of the three tiny bones of the middle ear. It is fixed to the eardrum and passes the eardrum's vibrations on to the incus, the next bone in the chain.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The bone is called the malleus, or hammer, because of its resemblance to a mallet. kenhub.com
- The malleus is the outermost of the three middle-ear bones. en.wikipedia.org
- The malleus is attached to the eardrum. meshb.nlm.nih.gov
- The malleus transfers the eardrum's vibrations to the incus, the next bone in the chain. en.wikipedia.org
- 14The part of a clock that strikes a bell to sound the hour.
As the gears turn, the hammer falls against the bell to mark the hour.
A worn hammer made the clock's chime sound dull.
- 15
- 16To ride very fast, especially on a bicycle, with maximum effort.
He hammered along the coast road to catch the lead group.
The riders hammer up the climb whenever the pace lifts.
UsageUsually with a direction word: hammer along, hammer up the climb, hammer through a town.
Oppositecoast
Note
Tim Moore, in French Revolutions (2001), "hammered into Obterre." The same pattern extends to anything moving at full power, such as a train at over 100mph that "hammers through Doncaster." The verb stresses effort and speed together, not speed alone.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The quotation “hammers through Doncaster” describes a train travelling at over 100mph. en.wiktionary.org
- 17To place very high demands on a system or service through intense, repeated use.
Thousands of incoming requests hammered the database every second.
Overnight backup jobs hammer the network whenever they run.
Similaroverload, swamp, flood, strain
Note
Engineers use this slang for both accidents and experiments. A traffic spike can hammer a database, and testers hammer a server on purpose to see how it holds up: Optimizing Windows NT describes "hammering the server in an unrealistic manner" while adding clients one at a time.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The passage describes increasing the number of clients one at a time. en.wiktionary.org
- 18The accelerator pedal of a vehicle.
Coming out of the turn, she buried the hammer and pulled ahead.
He eased off the hammer as the corner tightened.
UsageMostly in put the hammer down, to accelerate hard.
Similaraccelerator, throttle, gas
Oppositebrake
Note
The word now lives mostly inside an idiom: to put the hammer down means to floor the accelerator. C. W. McCall's trucker song "Convoy" (1975) uses the phrase in a trucker's radio message.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- To put the hammer down means to press the accelerator and drive fast. en.wikipedia.org
- Convoy is a trucker song performed by C. W. McCall and released in 1975. en.wikipedia.org
- The quoted words occur in Convoy; the speaker is the trucker Rubber Duck, voiced by McCall. en.wiktionary.org
Once the road ahead cleared, he put the hammer down.
She dropped the hammer on the back straight and pulled away.
- 19A handgun, especially a pistol carried for protection or threat.
He racked the slide on his hammer before stepping outside.
On the street he never left home without his hammer, a loaded pistol tucked into his belt.
Note
Here the word is slang from African-American Vernacular English, used loosely for any handgun. In U-God's memoir Raw (2018), a friend asks to "borrow that hammer" and leaves with a nickel-plated .357.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Hammer meaning a handgun is classified as African-American Vernacular slang. en.wiktionary.org
- Raw is U-God's memoir, first published in 2018. us.macmillan.com
- The original hardcover edition was published in 2018. us.macmillan.com
- In Raw, an associate asks to borrow a hammer, and U-God gives him his nickel-plated .357. en.wiktionary.org
- 20An act of striking something by using a hammer.
- 21In curling, the final stone delivered in an end.
- 22A throw in which a flying disc is gripped forehand, held upside down, and thrown forward above the head.
- 23To publicly declare a member of a stock exchange to be in default on their obligations.
- 24Short for hammer headline: a short headline of one or a few words in very large, bold type, usually above a smaller headline.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English hamer, from Old English hamor, going back to Proto-Germanic *hamaraz ("tool with a stone head"), with relatives like Dutch hamer and German Hammer. This is traditionally traced to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "stone," though this remains uncertain.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Hammer descends through Middle English hamer and Old English hamor from Proto-Germanic *hamaraz. en.wiktionary.org
- Proto-Germanic *hamaraz is glossed as a tool with a stone head. en.wiktionary.org
- Dutch hamer and German Hammer are related words. en.wiktionary.org
- The traditional connection to a Proto-Indo-European word meaning stone is uncertain. en.wiktionary.org