Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Hammer?

\Ham"mer\, n. [OE. hamer, AS. hamer, hamor; akin to D. hamer, G. & Dan. hammer, Sw. hammare, Icel. hamarr, hammer, crag, and perh. to Gr. ? anvil, Skr. a?man stone.] 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. --Shak. 2. Something which in firm or action resembles the common hammer; as: (a) That part of a clock which strikes upon the bell to indicate the hour. (b) The padded mallet of a piano, which strikes the wires, to produce the tones. (c) (Anat.) The malleus. See under {Ear}. (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. (e) Also, a person of thing that smites or shatters; as, St. Augustine was the hammer of heresies. He met the stern legionaries [of Rome] who had been the ``massive iron hammers'' of the whole earth. --J. H. Newman. {Atmospheric hammer}, a dead-stroke hammer in which the spring is formed by confined air. {Drop hammer}, {Face hammer}, etc. See under {Drop}, {Face}, etc. {Hammer fish}. See {Hammerhead}. {Hammer hardening}, the process of hardening metal by hammering it when cold. {Hammer shell} (Zo["o]l.), 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.
\Ham"mer\, 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. ``Hammered money.'' --Dryden. 3. To form in the mind; to shape by hard intellectual labor; -- usually with out. Who was hammering out a penny dialogue. --Jeffry.
\Ham"mer\, v. i. 1. To be busy forming anything; to labor hard as if shaping something with a hammer. Whereon this month I have hammering. --Shak. 2. To strike repeated blows, literally or figuratively. Blood and revenge are hammering in my head. --Shak.
\Ham"mer\, 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.