different between hammer vs wheeltapper

English

Etymology

From Middle English hamer, from Old English hamor, from Proto-Germanic *hamaraz (“tool with a stone head”) (compare West Frisian hammer, Low German Hamer, Dutch hamer, German Hammer, Danish hammer, Swedish hammare), from Proto-Indo-European *h?e?moros (compare Sanskrit ????? (a?mará, “stony”)), itself a derivation from *h?é?m? (“stone”).

For *h?é?m? (“stone”), compare Lithuanian akmuõ, Latvian akmens, Russian ?????? (kamen?), Serbo-Croatian kam?n, Albanian kmesë (“sickle”), Ancient Greek ????? (ákm?n, “meteor rock, anvil”), Avestan ????????????????????? (namsa), Sanskrit ?????? (á?man)) (root *h?e?- (“sharp”)).

(declare a defaulter on the stock exchange): Originally signalled by knocking with a wooden mallet.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?hæ.m?(?)/
• Rhymes: -æm?(r)
• (US) IPA^(key): /?hæ.m?/

Noun

hammer (plural hammers)

1. A tool with a heavy head and a handle used for pounding.

2. The act of using a hammer to hit something.

3. A moving part of a firearm that strikes the firing pin to discharge a gun.
4. (anatomy) The malleus, a small bone of the middle ear.
5. (music) In a piano or dulcimer, a piece of wood covered in felt that strikes the string.

6. (sports) A device made of a heavy steel ball attached to a length of wire, and used for throwing.
7. (curling) The last stone in an end.
8. (frisbee) A frisbee throwing style in which the disc is held upside-down with a forehand grip and thrown above the head.
9. Part of a clock that strikes upon a bell to indicate the hour.
10. One who, or that which, smites or shatters.

    St. Augustine was the hammer of heresies.

    • 1849, John Henry Newman, Discourses to Mixed Congregations

      He met the stern legionaries [of Rome] who had been the massive iron hammers of the whole earth.

11. (journalism) Short for hammer headline.
    • 1981, Harry W. Stonecipher, ?Edward C. Nicholls, ?Douglas A. Anderson, Electronic Age News Editing (page 104)

      Hammers are, in essence, reverse kickers. Instead of being set in smaller type like kickers, hammers are set in larger type than headlines.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• mallet

Verb

hammer (third-person singular simple present hammers, present participle hammering, simple past and past participle hammered)

1. To strike repeatedly with a hammer, some other implement, the fist, etc.
2. To form or forge with a hammer; to shape by beating.

   • hammered money

3. (figuratively) To emphasize a point repeatedly.
4. (sports) To hit particularly hard.
5. (cycling, intransitive, slang) To ride very fast.
   • 2011, Tim Moore, French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France (page 58)

     Fifteen minutes later, leaving a vapour trail of kitchen smells, I hammered into Obterre.
6. (intransitive) To strike internally, as if hit by a hammer.

   I could hear the engine’s valves hammering once the timing rod was thrown.

7. (transitive, slang, figuratively, sports) To defeat (a person, a team) resoundingly

   We hammered them 5-0!

8. (transitive, slang, computing) To make high demands on (a system or service).
   • 1995, Optimizing Windows NT (volume 4, page 226)

     So we'll be hammering the server in an unrealistic manner, but we'll see how the additional clients affect overall performance. We'll add two, three, four, and then five clients, […]

9. (transitive, finance) To declare (a person) a defaulter on the stock exchange.
10. (transitive, finance) To beat down the price of (a stock), or depress (a market).
11. (transitive, colloquial) To have hard sex with

    Synonym: pound

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• hammer out

Danish

Etymology

From Old Norse hamarr, from Proto-Germanic *hamaraz, from Proto-Indo-European *h?e?moros, from *h?é?m? (“stone”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ham?r/, [?h?m?]

Noun

hammer c (singular definite hammeren, plural indefinite hammere or hamre)

1. hammer

Inflection

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ham?/
• Homophone: Hammer

Verb

hammer

1. (colloquial, regional) Contraction of haben wir.

Usage notes

This contraction is common throughout central Germany, southern Germany, and Austria. It is only occasionally heard in northern Germany.

See also

• simmer

Middle English

Noun

hammer

1. Alternative form of hamer

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From Old Norse hamarr, from Proto-Germanic *hamaraz, from Proto-Indo-European *h?e?moros, from *h?é?m? (“stone”).

Alternative forms

• hammar

Noun

hammer m (definite singular hammeren, indefinite plural hammere or hamrer, definite plural hammerne or hamrene)

1. a hammer (tool)

Related terms

• hamre (verb)

Etymology 2

Noun

hammer m

1. indefinite plural of ham

References

• “hammer” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian hamar, from Proto-Germanic *hamaraz, from Proto-Indo-European *h?e?moros, from *h?é?m? (“stone”).

Noun

hammer c (plural hammers, diminutive hammerke)

1. hammer

Further reading

• “hammer”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

English

Alternative forms

• wheel-tapper

Etymology

wheel +? tapper

Noun

wheeltapper (plural wheeltappers)

1. (Britain, rail transport, historical) A railway employee tasked with tapping the train's wheels with a hammer to detect cracks.

Translations