HAMMER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does hammer mean? 

• HAMMER (noun)
  The noun HAMMER has 8 senses:

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

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

3. the ossicle attached to the eardrum

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

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

6. a striker that is covered in felt and that causes the piano strings to vibrate

7. a power tool for drilling rocks

8. the act of pounding (delivering repeated heavy blows)

  Familiarity information: HAMMER used as a noun is common.

• HAMMER (verb)
  The verb HAMMER has 2 senses:

1. beat with or as if with a hammer

2. create by hammering

  Familiarity information: HAMMER used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HAMMER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

cock; hammer

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 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"):

head (the striking part of a tool)

hammerhead (the striking part of a hammer)

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

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)

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

Derivation:

hammer (beat with or as if with a hammer)

hammer (create by hammering)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The ossicle attached to the eardrum

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

hammer; malleus

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)

Sense 4

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

hammer; mallet

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 5

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 6

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 7

Meaning:

A power tool for drilling rocks

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

hammer; power hammer

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

power tool (a tool driven by a motor)

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

electric hammer (a hammer driven by electric motor)

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

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

Sense 8

Meaning:

The act of pounding (delivering repeated heavy blows)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

hammer; hammering; pound; pounding

Context example:

the pounding of feet on the hallway

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

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

• HAMMER (verb)

Conjugation:

Sense 1

Meaning:

Beat with or as if with a hammer

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

hammer the metal flat

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

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

forge; hammer

Context example:

forge a pair of tongues

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)

 Context examples 

The hammer fell from Arthur's hand.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

We had no more than begun work when the sound of my knocking and hammering brought Wolf Larsen.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Failing there, he hammered it into the dogs with a club.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

His was a broken, jerky utterance, caused by the violence with which he hammered his numb hand upon the wood.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

That’s the question that beats in my brain like a hammer.

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

I stood straight up against the wall, my heart still going like a sledge-hammer, but with a ray of hope now shining in my bosom.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He’s been with me here since he was as high as that hammer.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I know I express myself incoherently, but I've tried to hammer out the idea.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

On Wednesday it was still unfinished, so I hammered away until Friday—that is, yesterday.

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

It was one of the irons I began to heat immediately, and one of the irons I kept hot, and hammered at, with a perseverance I may honestly admire.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)