Dictionaries › English

hammer

Pronunciation: /ˈhæmə/

The English word “hammer” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A tool with a heavy head and a handle used for pounding.
  2. The act of using a hammer to hit something.
  3. The malleus, a small bone of the middle ear.
  4. In a piano or dulcimer, a piece of wood covered in felt that strikes the string.
  5. A device made of a heavy steel ball attached to a length of wire, and used for throwing.
  6. The last stone in an end.
  7. A frisbee throw in which the disc is held upside-down with a forehand grip and thrown forwards above the head.
  8. Part of a clock that strikes upon a bell to indicate the hour.
  9. One who, or that which, smites or shatters.
  10. The accelerator pedal.
  11. A moving part of a firearm that strikes the firing pin to discharge a gun.
  12. A handgun.

verb

  1. To strike repeatedly with a hammer, some other implement, the fist, etc.
  2. To form or forge with a hammer; to shape by beating.
  3. To emphasize a point repeatedly.
  4. To hit particularly hard.
  5. To ride very fast.
  6. To strike internally, as if hit by a hammer.
  7. To defeat (a person, a team) resoundingly.
  8. To make high demands on (a system or service).

Etymology

From Middle English hamer, from Old English hamor, from Proto-West Germanic *hamar, from Proto-Germanic *hamaraz (“tool with a stone head”) (compare West Frisian hammer, Low German Hamer, Dutch hamer, German Hammer, Danish hammer, Swedish hammare). This is traditionally ascribed to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱmoros, from *h₂éḱmō (“stone”), but see *hamaraz for further discussion. (declare a…

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “hammer” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.