Part 695

The country wasted, and the hamlets burned.

Dryden.

Syn. -- Village; neighborhood. See Village.

Ham"let*ed, p. a. Confined to a hamlet. Feltham.

Ham"mer (-mr), n. [OE. hamer, AS. hamer, hamor; akin to D. hamer, G. & Dan. hammer, Sw. hammare, Icel. hamarr, hammer, crag, and perh. to Gr. 'a`kmwn anvil, Skr. aÁman 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 (Zoˆl.), 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 (-mrd); 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.

Ham"mer*a*ble (-*b'l), a. Capable of being formed or shaped by a hammer. Sherwood.

Ham"mer-beam` (-bm`), n. (Gothic Arch.) A member of one description of roof truss, called hammer-beam truss, which is so framed as not to have a tiebeam at the top of the wall. Each principal has two hammer-beams, which occupy the situation, and to some extent serve the purpose, of a tiebeam.

Ham"mer*cloth` (-klth; 115), n. [Prob. fr. D. hemel heaven, canopy, tester (akin to G. himmel, and perh. also to E. heaven) + E. cloth; or perh. a corruption of hamper cloth.] The cloth which covers a coach box.

Ham"mer-dressed` (-drst`), a. Having the surface roughly shaped or faced with the stonecutter's hammer; -- said of building stone.

Ham"mer*er (-r), n. One who works with a hammer.

Ham"mer-hard`en (-h‰rd`'n), v. t. To harden, as a metal, by hammering it in the cold state.