Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Hammer

Ham′mer (-mẽr), n. [OE. hamer, AS. hamer, hamor; akin to D. hamer, G. & Dan. hammer, Sw. hammare, Icel. hamarr, hammer, crag, and perh. to Gr. ἄκμων anvil, Skr. açman 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 form 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. (d) (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 or 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 (Zoöl.), 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 (-mẽrd); 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 been hammering. Shak.

2. To strike repeated blows, literally or figuratively.

Blood and revenge are hammering in my head. Shak.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.