Library / English Dictionary

HAMMER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of pounding (delivering repeated heavy blows)

Example:

the pounding of feet on the hallway

Synonyms:

hammer; hammering; pound; pounding

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("hammer" is a kind of...):

blow (a powerful stroke with the fist or a weapon)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A hand tool with a heavy rigid head and a handle; used to deliver an impulsive force by striking

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("hammer" is a kind of...):

hand tool (a tool used with workers' hands)

Meronyms (parts of "hammer"):

hammerhead (the striking part of a hammer)

head (the striking part of a tool)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "hammer"):

ball-peen hammer (a hammer with one round and one flat end; used in working metal)

bricklayer's hammer (a hammer used in laying bricks)

carpenter's hammer; claw hammer; clawhammer (a hammer with a cleft at one end for pulling nails)

beetle; mallet (a tool resembling a hammer but with a large head (usually wooden); used to drive wedges or ram down paving stones or for crushing or beating or flattening or smoothing)

maul; sledge; sledgehammer (a heavy long-handled hammer used to drive stakes or wedges)

percussor; plessor; plexor ((medicine) a small hammer with a rubber head used in percussive examinations of the chest and in testing reflexes)

tack hammer (a light hammer that is used to drive tacks)

Derivation:

hammer (beat with or as if with a hammer)

hammer (create by hammering)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A power tool for drilling rocks

Synonyms:

hammer; power hammer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("hammer" is a kind of...):

power tool (a tool driven by a motor)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "hammer"):

triphammer (a massive power hammer; raised by a cam until released to fall under gravity)

electric hammer (a hammer driven by electric motor)

air hammer; jackhammer; pneumatic hammer (a hammer driven by compressed air)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A striker that is covered in felt and that causes the piano strings to vibrate

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("hammer" is a kind of...):

striker (the part of a mechanical device that strikes something)

Holonyms ("hammer" is a part of...):

piano action (action consisting of a system of levers that move a felt hammer to strike the strings when a key is depressed)

Sense 5

Meaning:

The part of a gunlock that strikes the percussion cap when the trigger is pulled

Synonyms:

cock; hammer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("hammer" is a kind of...):

striker (the part of a mechanical device that strikes something)

Holonyms ("hammer" is a part of...):

firing mechanism; gunlock (the action that ignites the charge in a firearm)

Sense 6

Meaning:

A heavy metal sphere attached to a flexible wire; used in the hammer throw

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("hammer" is a kind of...):

sports equipment (equipment needed to participate in a particular sport)

Sense 7

Meaning:

A light drumstick with a rounded head that is used to strike such percussion instruments as chimes, kettledrums, marimbas, glockenspiels, etc.

Synonyms:

hammer; mallet

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("hammer" is a kind of...):

drumstick (a stick used for playing a drum)

Holonyms ("hammer" is a part of...):

percussion instrument; percussive instrument (a musical instrument in which the sound is produced by one object striking another)

Sense 8

Meaning:

The ossicle attached to the eardrum

Synonyms:

hammer; malleus

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("hammer" is a kind of...):

auditory ossicle (ossicles of the middle ear that transmit acoustic vibrations from the eardrum to the inner ear)

Holonyms ("hammer" is a part of...):

middle ear; tympanic cavity; tympanum (the main cavity of the ear; between the eardrum and the inner ear)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Beat with or as if with a hammer

Example:

hammer the metal flat

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "hammer" is one way to...):

beat (hit repeatedly)

Verb group:

forge; hammer (create by hammering)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "hammer"):

sledge; sledgehammer (beat with a sledgehammer)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

hammer (a hand tool with a heavy rigid head and a handle; used to deliver an impulsive force by striking)

hammering (the act of pounding (delivering repeated heavy blows))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Create by hammering

Example:

forge a pair of tongues

Synonyms:

forge; hammer

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "hammer" is one way to...):

beat (shape by beating)

Verb group:

hammer (beat with or as if with a hammer)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "hammer"):

foliate (hammer into thin flat foils)

dropforge (forge with a dropforge)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

hammer (a hand tool with a heavy rigid head and a handle; used to deliver an impulsive force by striking)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I rushed down the garden path, hammered at the door, heard the voice of Gladys within, pushed past the staring maid, and strode into the sitting-room.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The lobster was a scarlet mystery to her, but she hammered and poked till it was unshelled and its meager proportions concealed in a grove of lettuce leaves.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

You could have considerations about money that are keeping you in the situation, but no amount of money is worth seeing your self-esteem continually hammered into the ground.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

They have a kind of hard flints, which, by grinding against other stones, they form into instruments, that serve instead of wedges, axes, and hammers.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The world is given to them, and it resounds with the clang of their hammers and the ringing of their church bells.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

One drawer of the cabinet contained a real 0.38-caliber handgun that had been modified so it could not fire, although the gun's hammer and trigger were still functional.

(Better Not to Show Kids Movies with Guns, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Give me joy: I have got rid of Sir Walter and Miss. They are gone back to Kellynch, and almost made me swear to visit them this summer; but my first visit to Kellynch will be with a surveyor, to tell me how to bring it with best advantage to the hammer.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

So they set to work in one of the big yellow rooms of the castle and worked for three days and four nights, hammering and twisting and bending and soldering and polishing and pounding at the legs and body and head of the Tin Woodman, until at last he was straightened out into his old form, and his joints worked as well as ever.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

I went to my work as usual at ten o’clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the panel with a tack.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Arthur took the stake and the hammer, and when once his mind was set on action his hands never trembled nor even quivered.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)