See Also: unvaried(dictionary)
hammer(2)(dictionary)
Hammer toe(medicine)
Hammer(medicine)
hammer(1)(dictionary)
hammer(encyclopedia)
Hammer(health)
water-hammer(dictionary)
Hammer, Armand(encyclopedia)
hammer (as used in expressions)(encyclopedia)

hammer(1) (iou) and unvaried (iou)


hammer(1) (iou)



hammer noun.
[Old English hamor, hamer, homer = Old Frisian homer, Old Saxon hamur (Dutch hamer), Old High German hamar (German Hammer), Old Norse hamarr hammer, back of an axe, crag.]
A tool or instrument with a hard solid (now usu. steel) head set at right angles to the handle, used for beating, breaking, driving nails, etc.; a machine with a metal block serving the same purpose. OE.
J. Gardner He was one with..the hammer that sent nails in cleanly at two blows.
A door-knocker. LME-E17.
In a flintlock gun, a piece of steel covering the flash-pan and struck by the flint; in a percussion-lock gun, a spring lever which strikes the percussion-cap to ignite the charge; in a modern gun, a part of the firing mechanism which either strikes the firing pin to ignite the cartridge or has the firing pin as an integral part. LME.
W. Styron A white man standing over him with a musket, hammer cocked, ready to shoot.
A lever with a hard head for striking a bell in a clock etc. M16.
W. W. Skeat Within the gray church-tower The hammer strikes the midnight hour.
Anatomy. = MALLEUS 1. L16.
An auctioneer's mallet, used to indicate by a rap that an article is sold. E18.
W. C. Ketchum Upon the fall of the Auctioneer's hammer..the item purchased remains at the purchaser's..responsibility.
Music. A small padded mallet forming part of the mechanism for striking the strings of a piano; a small hand-held mallet for playing various percussion instruments, as the xylophone, dulcimer, etc. L18.
B. Mason The tuner saw a..wad of chewing gum..tugging the hammer.
Athletics. A heavy metal ball attached to a flexible wire; the contest of throwing this as far as possible. L19.
Phrases: be on a person's hammer pursue, pester, bother, (a person). come under the hammer, go under the hammer be put up for sale at an auction. hammer and sickle an emblem of a crossed hammer and sickle symbolizing the industrial worker and the peasant respectively, used esp. on the national flag of the former USSR and to represent international Communism. hammer and tongs with great energy and noise.
Comb.: hammer-action (a) the action of a hammer, an action like that of a hammer; (b) the mechanism of a piano comprising and controlling the hammers; hammerbeam: projecting from the wall at the foot of a principal rafter in a roof; hammer-blow a stroke (as) with a hammer. hammer-dressed adjective (of stone) roughly faced or smoothed by a hammer; hammer drill: having a bit which moves forwards and backwards whilst rotating; hammer-harden verb trans. harden (a metal) by hammering; hammerlock a position in which a wrestler is held with one arm bent behind his or her back; hammerman a man who works with a hammer; spec. a smith or worker in metal, a blacksmith's assistant; hammer price (a) the actual price realized by an item sold by auction; (b) Stock Exchange the price realized for the shares of a hammered defaulter; hammer-smith = hammerman above; hammer-toe: permanently bent downwards; hammer-work (a) work performed with a hammer; (b) something constructed or shaped with a hammer.
hammerless adjective (of a gun) having no hammer; having a concealed hammer: L19.

unvaried (iou)



unvaried adjective. L16.
[from UN-1 + VARIED.]
Not varied; consistent, monotonous.
unvariedly adverb L18.