Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The head of a hammer.
  • noun Any of several predatory sharks of the genus Sphyrna, having the sides of the head elongated into fleshy extensions with the eyes at the ends.
  • noun A wading bird (Scopus umbretta) of Africa and Arabia, having brown plumage, a large bladelike bill, and a long backward-pointing crest.
  • noun An African fruit bat (Hypsignathus monstrosus), the male of which has a distinctive enlarged head.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A shark of the family Sphyrnidæ or Zygœnidæ: so called from the great lateral expansion of the head.
  • noun A catostomine fish, Hypentelium nigricans, having a peculiarly shaped head, which is flat above and transversely concave between the eyes, while the snout is abruptly turned down. It abounds in the fresh waters of the United States, from New York to Kansas and Alabama. It sometimes attains a length of two feet. Other names are hogsucker, stone-roller, and crawl-a-bottom.
  • noun The umber or shadow-bird, Scopus umbretta.
  • noun In pianoforte-making, the padded projection of the hammer which strikes against the string.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) A shark of the genus Sphyrna or Zygæna, having the eyes set on projections from the sides of the head, which gives it a hammer shape. The Sphyrna zygæna is found in the North Atlantic. Called also hammer fish, and balance fish.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A fresh-water fish; the stone-roller.
  • noun (Zoöl.) An African fruit bat (Hypsignathus monstrosus); -- so called from its large blunt nozzle.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The portion of a hammer containing the metal striking face (also including the claw or peen if so equipped).
  • noun zoology Any of various sharks of the genus Sphyrna or Zygaena having the eyes set on projections from the sides of the head, which gives it a hammer shape.
  • noun zoology A fresh-water fish; the stone-roller, in the minnow family Cyprinidae.
  • noun zoology An African fruit bat, the hammer-headed fruit bat, Hypsignathus monstrosus, so called from its large blunt nozzle.
  • noun slang A stupid person, a dunce.
  • noun biology A kind of ribozyme; Hammerhead ribozyme.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun medium-sized live-bearing shark with eyes at either end of a flattened hammer-shaped head; worldwide in warm waters; can be dangerous
  • noun a stupid person; these words are used to express a low opinion of someone's intelligence
  • noun the striking part of a hammer

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

hammer +‎ head

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Examples

  • Aquaman comes across more thugs, but this time, when he calls a hammerhead shark to help, it he who is the on the receiving end of its wrath: ...

    Archive 2008-09-01 rob! 2008

  • By designing special enzymes called hammerhead ribozymes, the researchers were able to target a so-called

    India eNews 2009

  • It's nice that these researchers do this kind of research - but when they ignore what the sharks feed on and how they hunt it leads to such garbage results like "the hammerhead is the shape it is because of binocular vision"

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2009

  • By designing special enzymes called hammerhead ribozymes, the researchers were able to target a so-called "late" gene that releases its protein product relatively late after infection.

    Health News from Medical News Today 2009

  • It's nice that these researchers do this kind of research - but when they ignore what the sharks feed on and how they hunt it leads to such garbage results like "the hammerhead is the shape it is because of binocular vision"

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2009

  • By designing special enzymes called hammerhead ribozymes, the researchers were able to target a so-called "late" gene that releases its protein product relatively late after infection.

    EurekAlert! - Breaking News 2009

  • The viroids that Sanjuán and his colleagues studied contain a stretch of RNA called a hammerhead enzyme that speeds up the viroid's duplication in an enzymelike way.

    *Science* Blog Portal 2009

  • The viroids that Sanjuán and his colleagues studied contain a stretch of RNA called a hammerhead enzyme that speeds up the viroid's duplication in an enzymelike way.

    *Science* Blog Portal 2009

  • It's nice that these researchers do this kind of research - but when they ignore what the sharks feed on and how they hunt it leads to such garbage results like "the hammerhead is the shape it is because of binocular vision"

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2009

  • This is a classic "hammerhead" circulation that is pulling a relatively small portion of the WOM eastward to the Florida continental shelf edge and perhaps northward towards the northern eddy.

    WHAT REALLY HAPPENED 2010

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  • yet another red eye coffee variant.

    January 24, 2013