Definitions for the word "hammer" from multiple English dictionaries.
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.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
2. n.
Something which in firm or action resembles the common hammer
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
3. n.
That part of a clock which strikes upon the bell to indicate the hour.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
4. n.
The padded mallet of a piano, which strikes the wires, to produce the tones.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
5. n.
The malleus.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
6. n.
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.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
7. n.
Also, a person of thing that smites or shatters; as, St. Augustine was the hammer of heresies.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
8. v. t.
To beat with a hammer; to beat with heavy blows; as, to hammer iron.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
9. v. t.
To form or forge with a hammer; to shape by beating.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
10. v. t.
To form in the mind; to shape by hard intellectual labor; -- usually with out.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
11. v. i.
To be busy forming anything; to labor hard as if shaping something with a hammer.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
12. v. i.
To strike repeated blows, literally or figuratively.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
13. n.
1 a tool with a heavy metal head at right angles to its handle, used for driving nails etc. B similar device, as for exploding the charge in a gun, striking the strings of a piano, etc. 2 auctioneer''s mallet. 3 metal ball attached to a wire for throwing in an athletic contest. v. 1 a hit or beat with or as with a hammer. B strike loudly. 2 a drive in (nails) with a hammer. B fasten or secure by hammering (hammered the lid down). 3 (usu. Foll. By in) inculcate (ideas, knowledge, etc.) Forcefully or repeatedly. 4 colloq. Defeat utterly; beat up. 5 (foll. By at, away at) work hard or persistently at. come under the hammer be sold at auction. Hammer out 1 make flat or smooth by hammering. 2 work out details of (a plan etc.) Laboriously. 3 play (a tune, esp. On the piano) loudly or clumsily. hammering n. (esp. In sense 4 of v.). [old english]
Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 1884
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