hammer

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“
Just as the hammer was about to fall he would arrest it with, "Try 'im again," but the stranger instantly capped his reluctant bid, always leaving him to consider a further advance in great discomfort.

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Definitions (85)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (18)

  1. noun A hand tool consisting of a handle with a head of metal or other heavy rigid material that is attached at a right angle, used for striking or pounding.
  2. noun A tool or device similar in function or action to this striking tool, as:
  3. noun The part of a gunlock that hits the primer or firing pin or explodes the percussion cap and causes the gun to fire.
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Examples (50)

  • Just as the hammer was about to fall he would arrest it with, “Try 'im again,” but the stranger instantly capped his reluctant bid, always leaving him to consider a further advance in great discomfort. —  Grain and Chaff from an English Manor
  • I have heard the tea-cups rattle in the cupboard in my house a quarter of a mile from the place where the hammer was at work. —  James Nasmyth: Engineer, An Autobiography.
  • The portion of coat lying across Monk's gun had gotten under the hammer, stopping its fall Angrily, Monk yanked at the cloth, tore off a long strip, tore off another, but the hammer was as solidly wedged as ever. —  155 - Measures For A Coffin
  • Guerrilla website that the hammer will be a multiplayer unlockable. —  Cinema Blend Feeds
  • Thirty five years ago I took a reupholstering class and this hammer was a required tool. —  Mother Earth News Latest 10 Articles
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

axe ·  knife ·  bolt ·  chisel ·  shovel ·  lever ·  spear ·  drum ·  fist ·  rod ·  barrel ·  whip

Used in the same contextWord Family

hammer:   hammering ·  hammered
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English hamer, from Old English hamor; see ak- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. from Middle English hamer, homer, from Anglo-Saxon hamor, hamer, homer = Old Saxon hamur = OFries. homer, hamer = Dutch hamer = Middle Low German hamer = Old High German hamar, MHO. hamer, German hammer = Icelandic hamarr = Swedish hammare = Danish hammer, a hammer. The Icelandic hamarr means also a crag, rock, suggesting a connection with Old Bulgarian kameni, Russian kamene, a stone, these and the Teutonic forms having (in this view) suffered a transposition of the first two consonants: cf. Lithuanian akmŭ (akmen-) = Lettish akmins, a stone, = Greek ἂκμων, an anvil, thunderbolt, = Sanskrit açman, a stone, thunderbolt. The first hammers were of stone.
  2. from Middle English hameren, homeren = Dutch hameren = Middle High German hemeren, German hämmern = Danish hamre = Swedish hamra, hammer; from the noun.
  3. apparently a variant of hammel, hamble, perhaps associated with stammer.
  4. Not found in modern English or Middle English except in the comp. yellowhammer, and perhaps in the passage given below, where, however, the word, if not indeed a slang use of hammer, may be an abbreviation of yellow-hammer, and not the genuine simple form; from Anglo-Saxon amere, amore = Middle Low German amere = Old High German amero, Middle High German amer, German ammer, also diminutive Middle High German amerinc, ämerinc, German emmering, ämmering, also German emmerling, ämmerling, hämmerling, etc. (see Emberiza), a bunting, yellowhammer; prob. connected with G. amsel, Dutch amsel, later English amzel = Anglo-Saxon ōsle, English ouzel: see amzel, ouzel, Emberiza, yellow-hammer.
 

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/ˈhæmər/
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