WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : Ham"mer
Part of Speech : n.
Etymology : [OE. hamer, AS. hamer, hamor; akin to D. hamer, G. & Dan. hammer, Sw. hammare, Icel. hamarr, hammer, crag, and perh. to Gr. a stone.]
Definition : 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.)

Defn: 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?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.
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913

Pronunciation : Ham"mer
Part of Speech : v.
Definition : 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.

t. [imp. & p. p. Hammered; p. pr. & vb. n. Hammering.]
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913

Pronunciation : Ham"mer
Part of Speech : v.
Definition : 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.

i.
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913