hammer

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. 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. n. A tool or device similar in function or action to this striking tool, as:
3. n. The part of a gunlock that hits the primer or firing pin or explodes the percussion cap and causes the gun to fire.
4. n. Music One of the padded wooden pieces of a piano that strikes the strings.
5. n. A part of an apparatus that strikes a gong or bell, as in a clock.
6. n. Anatomy See malleus.
7. n. Sports A metal ball weighing 16 pounds (7.2 kilograms) and having a long wire or wooden handle by which it is thrown for distance in track-and-field competition.
8. n. A small mallet used by auctioneers.
9. v. To hit, especially repeatedly, with or as if with a hammer; pound. See Synonyms at beat.
10. v. To beat into a shape with or as if with a hammer: hammered out the dents in the fender; hammered out a contract acceptable to both sides.
11. v. To put together, fasten, or seal, particularly with nails, by hammering.
12. v. To force upon by constant repetition: hammered the information into the students' heads.
13. v. To defeat soundly.
14. v. To inflict a heavy loss or damage on.
15. v. To deal repeated blows with or as if with a hammer; pummel: "Wind hammered at us violently in gusts” ( Thor Heyerdahl).
16. v. To undergo beating in the manner of a hammer: My pulse hammered.
17. v. Informal To keep at something continuously: hammered away at the problem.
18. idiom. under the hammer For sale at an auction.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An instrument consisting of a solid head, usually of metal, but sometimes of wood or of stone, set crosswise to the handle, used for beating metals, driving nails or spikes, dressing or breaking stones, etc.; hence, a machine in which a heavy block of metal is used for such a purpose. See steam-hammer, tilt-hammer, trip-hammer. The head of the hammer is made in various forms, according to the use to which it is to be put. Hammers of stone are found among the remains of antiquity, and are still in use among barbarous races. The hammer has also been used as a weapon of attack in war. See martel-de-fer.
2. n. Something which resembles the common hammer in form, action, or use. The piece in a clock which strikes upon the bell to indicate the hour; the striker.
3. n. A door-knocker.
4. n. In anatomy, the malleus.
5. n. The head of a sphyrnid or hammer-headed shark.
6. n. Figuratively, an aggressive and destructive foe: as, a hammer of heretics (Latin malleus hœreticorum).
7. n. Same as fylfot.
8. n. A pendent ornament, usually of silver, found among relics of the prehistoric iron age in the north of Europe. It has somewhat the shape of a mallet, and is undoubtedly intended to represent a hammer as weapon or utensil.
9. To beat or drive with or as if with a hammer; pound; beat: as, to hammer iron or steel; to hammer one with the fist.
10. To fasten with a hammer by nailing or otherwise; construct by the use of the hammer.
11. To form or forge with a hammer; shape by beating: often with out.
12. To work upon in the mind; contrive by intellectual labor; excogitate: usually with out: as, to hammer out a scheme.
13. To strike something repeatedly with or as if with a hammer.
14. To work industriously or persistently; be very busy; labor in contrivance: as, to be hammering away at an invention.
15. To be working or in agitation; keep up an excited action or state of feeling.
16. To stammer.
17. n. A yellowhammer or bunting. As used in the following passage the meaning of the word is uncertain. See etymology.
18. n. In athletics, a 16-pound weight (or a 12-pound weight for school-boys), attached by ball-bearing to a wire handle, which competitors, standing in a marked circle, endeavor to throw as far as possible. The old-fashioned hammer had an ordinary stiff wooden handle.
19. To declare (a member) to be in default, after notice by hammering three times on the rostrum.
20. To beat down or depress (price or the market); bear.
21. To make a knocking noise, as a steam-pipe when steam is let on and a water-hammer is produced. See water-hammer, 2.

Wiktionary

1. n. A tool with a heavy head and a handle used for pounding.
2. n. A moving part of a firearm that strikes the firing pin to discharge a gun.
3. n. anatomy The malleus.
4. n. music In a piano or dulcimer, a piece of wood covered in felt that strikes the string.
5. n. sports A device made of a heavy steel ball attached to a length of wire, and used for throwing.
6. n. curling The last rock in an end.
7. n. Ultimate Frisbee A frisbee throwing style in which the disc is held upside-down with a forehand grip and thrown above the head.
8. v. To strike repeatedly with a hammer, some other implement, the fist, etc.
9. v. figuratively To emphasize a point repeatedly.
10. v. sports To hit particularly hard.
11. v. To strike internally, as if hit by a hammer.
12. v. figuratively, sports To defeat (a person, a team) resoundingly

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. An instrument for driving nails, beating metals, and the like, consisting of a head, usually of steel or iron, fixed crosswise to a handle.
2. n. Something which in form or action resembles the common hammer.
3. n. That part of a clock which strikes upon the bell to indicate the hour.
4. n. The padded mallet of a piano, which strikes the wires, to produce the tones.
5. n. (Anat.) The malleus.
6. n. (Gun.) That part of a gunlock which strikes the percussion cap, or firing pin; the cock; formerly, however, a piece of steel covering the pan of a flintlock musket and struck by the flint of the cock to ignite the priming.
7. n. Also, a person or thing that smites or shatters
8. n. (Athletics) 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.
9. v. To beat with a hammer; to beat with heavy blows.
10. v. To form or forge with a hammer; to shape by beating.
11. v. To form in the mind; to shape by hard intellectual labor; -- usually with out.
12. v. To be busy forming anything; to labor hard as if shaping something with a hammer.
13. v. To strike repeated blows, literally or figuratively.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the ossicle attached to the eardrum
2. n. the act of pounding (delivering repeated heavy blows)
3. v. create by hammering
4. v. beat with or as if with a hammer
5. n. a power tool for drilling rocks
6. n. a heavy metal sphere attached to a flexible wire; used in the hammer throw
7. n. a hand tool with a heavy rigid head and a handle; used to deliver an impulsive force by striking
8. n. a light drumstick with a rounded head that is used to strike such percussion instruments as chimes, kettledrums, marimbas, glockenspiels, etc.
9. n. a striker that is covered in felt and that causes the piano strings to vibrate
10. n. the part of a gunlock that strikes the percussion cap when the trigger is pulled