hardware
- 1Fixtures, fasteners, tools, and devices used for building, repairing, or assembling structures and objects.
The contractor ordered cabinet hardware (hinges, pulls, and brackets) for the kitchen remodel.
Loose hardware on the gate finally caused it to sag off its post.
Similarfittings, fixtures, ironmongery
Note
The oldest sense, put together from plain parts: hard plus -ware, in use since the mid-15th century. Ware means goods, so the word first named the durable, solid stock a merchant sold, and that commercial tie survives in the hardware store. Hammers, nails, screws, nuts and bolts are its core, and it is a mass noun: you buy some hardware, never a hardware.
- 2The physical parts of a computer that cannot be changed without replacing or physically modifying them, such as the motherboard and expansion cards.
Upgrading the graphics card required hardware that the old motherboard couldn't support.
The lab replaced aging server hardware to handle the heavier processing load.
Oppositesoftware
Note
Computing defines it against software: what you can touch and must physically swap, as opposed to the instructions that run on it. The usage was already casual by 1952, when R.L. Michaelson called hardware the generally accepted colloquialism for anything inside a computer other than an engineer. Like the older senses, it is uncountable, so you speak of pieces of hardware, not hardwares.
- 3Equipment or gear, especially the physical items needed for a particular job or activity.
The film crew hauled their hardware up the mountain for the shoot.
Climbers check every piece of hardware before attempting the ascent.
Note
Widened from tools to any physical kit, often in a set phrase like military hardware. Engineers use it to set the real object against the idea of it: an intercooler in a textbook is one thing, the actual hardware crawling down the road is another. It also stands for added components and their cost, as in the extra hardware that makes a turbocharged engine expensive.
- 4Physical electronic devices and machines, regarded collectively as equipment.
The recording engineer prefers analog hardware to digital plugins.
Faulty hardware in the broadcast booth knocked the station off the air.
Oppositesoftware
Note
Technology uses it more broadly than computing does. Any electronic apparatus counts, including broadcast desks, recording gear and transmitters, and not only the inside of a computer. The contrast with the computer meaning still holds: a sound engineer who prefers analog hardware to plugins is choosing the physical box over the program that imitates it.
- 5Tools, fittings, and other implements made of metal.
The blacksmith displayed an array of iron hardware at the county fair.
Antique furniture often features hand-forged hardware rather than cast pieces.
Similarironmongery, ironwork, metalwork
Note
In fashion and furniture, the word narrows to the metal fittings on an object rather than tools for working on it. A bag's hardware is its metal parts, and designers put their logo there. The word marks the metal against the leather, wood or fabric around it.
- 6A firearm, especially a handgun.
Word on the street was that they'd brought hardware to the meeting.
She refused to drive him anywhere once she spotted the hardware in his bag.
Similarfirearms, weaponry, heat, iron, artillery
Note
A slang way of naming a gun without naming it. It extends the general "equipment" meaning, so the weapon sounds like just another piece of kit. Like the other senses, it usually behaves as a mass noun, as in brought hardware or spotted the hardware, rather than taking an article. In neutral or formal writing, say firearm or handgun instead.
- 7Medals, trophies, or similar awards, especially viewed as a collection won in competition.
The veteran quarterback retired without ever adding a championship to his hardware.
She cleared a space on the mantel for her new hardware after the tournament.
Similarsilverware, trophies, medals, honors
Note
A slang joke on the metal-implements meaning: medals and trophies are, after all, metal objects. It is used collectively for everything a competitor has won, so a champion adds to their hardware. The playful tone suits casual talk about sport and competition but not formal citations or award announcements.
- 8Ellipsis of hardware store.
She picked up a new wrench at the hardware down the block.
Every small town used to have a hardware on the corner.
Note
This is a Philippine shortening that keeps the modifier and drops store. Unlike the mass-noun senses, it names a single place: the hardware down the block, a hardware on the corner. Outside the Philippines, listeners are likely to hear the hardware as the goods rather than the shop, so hardware store is the safer phrase elsewhere.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English "hardware," formed from "hard" and the suffix "-ware," and attested since the mid-15th century.