hammering

Pluralhammerings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of hammer.

   The roofers were hammering shingles into place all through the morning.

   Hammering steadily at the forge, the blacksmith shaped the glowing bar.

   Note

   Every sense of hammer travels with this form. A heart can be hammering, a speaker can keep hammering a point home, and in slang a rider can be hammering along. To tell the verb from the noun of the same spelling, look for an article or a plural: a hammering and hammerings are nouns. Hammering the nails takes a direct object, as only the verb does.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A spell of being struck or beaten repeatedly.

   The ship's hull took a fearful hammering against the rocks all night.

   After hours exposed to the hail, the greenhouse roof had taken a brutal hammering.

   Similarbattering, pounding, beating, pummeling

   Note

   The noun works both ways in number: you can speak of hammering in general, or of a smith's repeated hammerings that thin and toughen metal. It also names the sound of the blows, as in a hammering on the door, where the noise matters more than any damage done. The phrase take a hammering stretches it toward harm of any kind, and from there to the sporting sense of defeat.

3. 3
   nounslangcountable or uncountable

   A heavy, one-sided defeat, especially in a game or competition.

   The defending champions handed the newcomers a hammering in the opening round.

   After that hammering, the coach demanded a full review of the squad's tactics.

   Similarthrashing, drubbing, trouncing, rout, beating

   Note

   Slang that sports reporting has made ordinary. Alistair Magowan, writing for BBC Sport in 2011, recalls the 6-0 hammering Aston Villa suffered at St James' Park. The scoreline often sits right before the noun, and the usual verbs are suffer, take and hand out. It suits match reports and conversation. In formal writing, heavy defeat says the same thing without the slang. It is a figurative stretch of the physical beating.

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A dented, textured surface on silverware, created by repeated blows of a hammer.

   The teapot showed a fine hammering across its body, each dimple catching a point of light.

   Collectors prize the irregular hammering on antique silver serving trays.

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