Hammer /(hăm"mẽr)/

Ham·mer

Hammer

n.
  1. An instrument for driving nails, beating metals, and the like, consisting of a head, usually of steel or iron, fixed crosswise to a handle.
    With busy hammers closing rivets up.
  2. Something which in form or action resembles the common hammer (Anat.)
    He met the stern legionaries [of Rome] who had been the “massive iron hammers” of the whole earth.
  3. A spherical weight attached to a flexible handle and hurled from a mark or ring. The weight of head and handle is usually not less than 16 pounds. (Athletics)

Phrases & Compounds
Atmospheric hammer
a dead-stroke hammer in which the spring is formed by confined air.
Drop hammer
See under Drop, Face, etc.
Hammer fish
See Hammerhead.
Hammer hardening
the process of hardening metal by hammering it when cold.
Hammer shell
any species of Malleus, a genus of marine bivalve shells, allied to the pearl oysters, having the wings narrow and elongated, so as to give them a hammer-shaped outline; -- called also hammer oyster.
To bring to the hammer
to put up at auction.

Hammer

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Hammered; p. pr. & vb. n. Hammering

  1. To beat with a hammer; to beat with heavy blows; as, to hammer iron.
  2. To form or forge with a hammer; to shape by beating.
  3. To form in the mind; to shape by hard intellectual labor; -- usually with out.
    Who was hammering out a penny dialogue.
    — Jeffry.

Hammer

v. i.
  1. To be busy forming anything; to labor hard as if shaping something with a hammer.
    Whereon this month I have been hammering.
  2. To strike repeated blows, literally or figuratively.
    Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.