hammeread.html - See: GO AT IT HAMMER AND TONGS, UNDER THE HAMMER.

hammeread.html - {adv. phr.} Violently. * /Mr. and Mrs. Smith have been at it all day, hammer and tongs./

hammeread.html - {v.} 1. To work steadily at; keep at. * /That lesson is not easy, but hammer away at it and you will get it right./ 2. To talk about again and again; emphasize. * /The speaker hammered at his opponent's ideas./

hammeread.html - {v.} 1. To write or produce by hard work. * /The President sat at his desk till midnight hammering out his speech for the next day./ 2. To remove, change, or work out by discussion and debate; debate and agree on (something). * /Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Green have hammered out their difference of opinion./ * /The club members have hammered out an agreement between the two groups./ Compare: IRON OUT.

hammeread.html - n. & v.
--n.

1 a a tool with a heavy metal head at right angles to the handle, used for breaking, driving nails, etc. b a machine with a metal block serving the same purpose. c a similar contrivance, as for exploding the charge in a gun, striking the strings of a piano, etc.
2 an auctioneer's mallet, indicating by a rap that an article is sold.
3 a a metal ball of about 7 kg, attached to a wire for throwing in an athletic contest. b the sport of throwing the hammer.
4 a bone of the middle ear; the malleus.

--v.

1 a tr. & intr. hit or beat with or as with a hammer. b intr. strike loudly; knock violently (esp. on a door).
2 tr. a drive in (nails) with a hammer. b fasten or secure by hammering (hammered the lid down).
3 tr. (often foll. by in) inculcate (ideas, knowledge, etc.) forcefully or repeatedly.
4 tr. colloq. utterly defeat; inflict heavy damage on.
5 intr. (foll. by at, away at) work hard or persistently at.
6 tr. Stock Exch. declare (a person or a firm) a defaulter.

come under the hammer be sold at an auction. hammer and sickle the symbols of the industrial worker and the peasant used as the emblem of the USSR and of international communism. hammer and tongs colloq. with great vigour and commotion. hammer out 1 make flat or smooth by hammering.
2 work out the details of (a plan, agreement, etc.) laboriously.
3 play (a tune, esp. on the piano) loudly or clumsily. hammer-toe a deformity in which the toe is bent permanently downwards.

hammering n. (esp. in sense 4 of v.). hammerless adj. [OE hamor, hamer]

hammeread.html - n.
a wooden beam (often carved) projecting from a wall to support the principal rafter or the end of an arch.