different between matter vs jackhammer

English

Etymology

From Middle English matere, mater, from Anglo-Norman matere, materie, from Old French materie, matiere, from Latin materia (“matter, stuff, material”), derivative of Latin mater (“mother”). Doublet of Madeira.

Displaced native Middle English andweorc, andwork (“material, matter”) (from Old English andweorc (“matter, substance, material”)), Old English intinga (“matter, affair, business”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?mæt?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?mæt?/, [?mæ??]
  • Homophone: madder
• Rhymes: -æt?(?)
• Hyphenation: mat?ter

Noun

matter (countable and uncountable, plural matters)

1. Substance, material.
   1. (physics) The basic structural component of the universe. Matter usually has mass and volume.
   2. (physics) Matter made up of normal particles, not antiparticles.

      Antonym: antimatter

   3. A kind of substance.

   4. Printed material, especially in books or magazines.

   5. (philosophy) Aristotelian: undeveloped potentiality subject to change and development; formlessness. Matter receives form, and becomes substance.
2. A condition, subject or affair, especially one of concern.
   • 1597, Francis Bacon, Of the Colours of Good and Evil

     if the matter should be tried by duel

   • 12 July 2012, Sam Adams, AV Club Ice Age: Continental Drift

     The matter of whether the world needs a fourth Ice Age movie pales beside the question of why there were three before it, but Continental Drift feels less like an extension of a theatrical franchise than an episode of a middling TV cartoon, lolling around on territory that’s already been settled.

3. An approximate amount or extent.
4. (obsolete) The essence; the pith; the embodiment.
   • 1611, Ben Jonson, Oberon, the Faery Prince

     He is the matter of virtue.

5. (obsolete) Inducing cause or reason, especially of anything disagreeable or distressing.
6. (dated) Pus.

Synonyms

• material
• stuff
• substance

Derived terms

Related terms

• dark matter

Translations

Verb

matter (third-person singular simple present matters, present participle mattering, simple past and past participle mattered)

1. (intransitive) To be important. [from 16th c.]
2. (transitive, in negative constructions, now England regional, Caribbean) To care about, to mind; to find important. [from 17th c.]
   • , Folio Society 1973, p.47:

     Besides, if it had been out of doors I had not mattered it so much; but with my own servant, in my own house, under my own roof […]

   • 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, Letter 56:

     He matter'd not that, he said; coy maids made the fondest wives […].

3. (intransitive, medicine, archaic) To form pus or matter, as an abscess; to maturate.

   • Each slight sore mattereth.

Derived terms

• it doesn't matter
• no matter (“in spite of”)

Synonyms

• (be important): signify

Translations

French

Verb

matter

1. Alternative spelling of mater

Conjugation

Anagrams

• mettra

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?mat?/

Adjective

matter

1. comparative degree of matt
2. inflection of matt:
   1. strong/mixed nominative masculine singular
   2. strong genitive/dative feminine singular
   3. strong genitive plural

Middle French

Alternative forms

• mater

Verb

matter

1. to checkmate

Conjugation

• Middle French conjugation varies from one text to another. Hence, the following conjugation should be considered as typical, not as exhaustive.

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

matter m pl or f pl

1. indefinite plural of matte (Etymology 1)

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

matter f pl

1. indefinite plural of matte (Etymology 1)

English

Noun

jackhammer (plural jackhammers)

1. A portable percussive power tool that combines a hammer and chisel used to drill or break hard matter, for instance rock or concrete.

Synonyms

• pneumatic drill (British)

Translations

Verb

jackhammer (third-person singular simple present jackhammers, present participle jackhammering, simple past and past participle jackhammered)

1. (intransitive) To use a jackhammer.
   • 1985, Don DeLillo, White Noise, Penguin, 1986, Chapter 33, p. 254,^[1]

     Early the next day a crew came to fix the street. Vernon was out there at once, watching them jackhammer and haul the asphalt […]

2. (transitive) To break (something) using a jackhammer.
   • 1991, Peter Laufer, Iron Curtain Rising, San Francisco: Mercury House, Chapter 9, p. 171,^[2]

     The foundations for the barrier had been jackhammered away; the piles of broken concrete were just left alongside the road.

   • 2002, Emily Schultz, “Foam” in Black Coffee Night, Toronto: Insomniac Press, p. 12,^[3]

     In the morning, the street is being jackhammered up.

3. (transitive) To form (something) using a jackhammer.
   • 1944, Ernie Pyle, Brave Men, New York: Henry Holt, Chapter 6, p. 69,^[4]

     Small ledges had been jackhammered at each end of the crater and timbers bolted into them, forming abutments of the bridge that was to come.

   • 1988, Scott C. Davis, The World of Patience Gromes: Making and Unmaking a Black Community, Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, Chapter 3, p. 49,^[5]

     Richmond already spent tax money on an engineering department whose employees parked their trucks in the street, jackhammered holes in the pavement, and repaired storm sewers […]

   • 2009, Kage Baker, The Empress of Mars, New York: Tom Doherty Associates, Chapter 27, p. 258,^[6]

     He was standing at a work table he’d jackhammered from a boulder, placidly sculpting a rose on its work surface.

4. (intransitive, figuratively) To move like a jackhammer.
   • 1977, Betsy Haynes, The Ghost of the Gravestone Hearth, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Chapter 2, p. 20,^[7]

     […] a bolt of lightning jackhammered across the sky, interrupting his dream.

   • 2003, Beverly Barton, Grace under Fire, New York: Silhouette, Chapter 16, pp. 218-219,^[8]

     When he jackhammered into her, she clutched the bedspread and braced herself for the onslaught.

   • 2010, Dennis Lehane, Moonlight Mile, New York: William Morrow, Chapter 7, p. 69,^[9]

     His left knee jackhammered under the desk, his right hand patted a steady bongo beat on the top.

   1. (of the heart or pulse) To beat hard, to pound.
      • 1995, Margaret Wild, Beast, New York: Scholastic, Chapter 2, p. 7,^[10]

        […] he lay rigid, his heart jackhammering, telling himself that there was nothing out there, nothing […]

      • 2002, Tom Piccirilli, The Night Class, New York: Leisure Books, Chapter 1, p. 7,^[11]

        The paranoia came on pretty damn strong for this early in the morning, his high blood pressure—160 over 90 at twenty-two—jackhammering in his wrists, his thoughts caterwauling beneath the moment.

5. (transitive, figuratively) To move (something) like a jackhammer.
   • 1999, Dean Koontz, False Memory, New York: Bantam, 2000, Chapter 68, p. 611,^[12]

     He […] drew his knees toward his chest as far as the cramped space would allow, and jackhammered his feet into the forward wall of the trunk, which was formed by the backseat of the car.

   • 2006, Danielle Trussoni, Falling through the Earth, New York: Henry Holt, Chapter 4, p. 44,^[13]

     Then, before the lumberjack had a chance to react, Dad grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and jackhammered his head into the bar.

6. (transitive, figuratively) To strike (something) repeatedly with force, to pound.
   • 1966, “Rolling Thunder,” Time, 15 April, 1966,^[14]

     Guam-based B-52 bombers, newly modified to haul 60,000 lbs. of bombs each, jackhammered a Viet Cong radio and communications center 35 miles northeast of Saigon.

   • 1985, Andrew Coburn, Sweetheart, London: Secker & Warburg, Chapter 20, p. 197,^[15]

     He didn’t make love to her; he jackhammered her.

   • 1997, Richard Flanagan, The Sound of One Hand Clapping, New York: Grove, 2014, Chapter 78,^[16]

     […] the thought jackhammered his heart and mind.

Further reading

• jackhammer on Wikipedia.Wikipedia