Hammer vs. Nail — What's the Difference?
Difference Between Hammer and Nail
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Compare with Definitions
Hammer
A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nails into wood, to shape metal (as with a forge), or to crush rock.
Nail
A slim, pointed piece of metal hammered into material as a fastener.
Hammer
A hand tool consisting of a handle with a head of metal or other heavy rigid material that is attached at a right angle, used for striking or pounding.
Nail
A fingernail or toenail.
Hammer
The part of a gunlock that hits the primer or firing pin or explodes the percussion cap and causes the gun to fire.
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Nail
A claw or talon.
Hammer
(Music) One of the padded wooden pieces of a piano that strikes the strings.
Nail
Something resembling a nail in shape, sharpness, or use.
Hammer
A part of an apparatus that strikes a gong or bell, as in a clock.
Nail
A measure of length formerly used for cloth, equal to 1/16 yard (5.7 centimeters).
Hammer
(Anatomy) See malleus.
Nail
To fasten, join, or attach with or as if with a nail.
Hammer
(Sports) A metal ball weighing 16 pounds (7.2 kilograms) and having a long wire or wooden handle by which it is thrown for distance in track-and-field competition.
Nail
To cover, enclose, or shut by fastening with nails
Nail up a window.
Hammer
A small mallet used by auctioneers.
Nail
To keep fixed, motionless, or intent
Fear nailed me to my seat.
Hammer
To hit, especially repeatedly, with a hammer; pound.
Nail
To stop and seize; catch
Police nailed the suspect.
Hammer
To strike forcefully and repeatedly
Hooves hammering the ground.
Nail
To detect and expose
Nailed the senator in a lie.
Nail corruption before it gets out of control.
Hammer
To assault with military force
Hammered the position with artillery shells.
Nail
To strike or bring down
Nail a bird in flight.
Nail a running back.
Hammer
To beat into a shape with a hammer or similar tool
Hammered the metal into a goblet.
Nail
To perform successfully or have noteworthy success in
Nailed the dive.
Nailed the exam.
Hammer
To accomplish or produce with difficulty or effort. Often used with out
Hammer out an agreement.
Nail
(Baseball) To put out (a base runner).
Hammer
To put together, fasten, or seal, particularly with nails, by hammering.
Nail
Vulgar Slang To have sexual intercourse with.
Hammer
To force upon (someone) by constant repetition
Hammered the information into the students' heads.
Nail
The thin, horny plate at the ends of fingers and toes on humans and some other animals.
When I'm nervous I bite my nails.
Hammer
To cause harm, loss, or difficulty to (someone), especially repeatedly
Investors hammered in the bear market.
Nail
The basal thickened portion of the anterior wings of certain hemiptera.
Hammer
To defeat soundly
Got hammered in the playoffs.
Nail
The terminal horny plate on the beak of ducks, and other allied birds.
Hammer
To attack verbally
A politician hammered in the press.
Nail
The claw of a bird or other animal.
Hammer
To deal repeated blows with or as if with a hammer; pummel
"Wind hammered at us violently in gusts" (Thor Heyerdahl).
Nail
A spike-shaped metal fastener used for joining wood or similar materials. The nail is generally driven through two or more layers of material by means of impacts from a hammer or other device. It is then held in place by friction.
Hammer
To undergo beating in the manner of a hammer
My pulse hammered.
Nail
A round pedestal on which merchants once carried out their business, such as the four nails outside The Exchange, Bristol.
Hammer
(Informal) To keep at something continuously. Often used with away
Hammered away at the problem.
Nail
An archaic English unit of length equivalent to 20 of an ell or 16 of a yard (4 inches or 5.715 cm).
Hammer
A tool with a heavy head and a handle used for pounding.
Bobby used a hammer and nails to fix the two planks together
Nail
(transitive) To fix (an object) to another object using a nail.
He nailed the placard to the post.
Hammer
The act of using a hammer to hit something.
The nail is too loose—give it a hammer.
Nail
(intransitive) To drive a nail.
He used the ax head for nailing.
Hammer
(firearms) A moving part of a firearm that strikes the firing pin to discharge a gun.
Nail
(transitive) To stud or boss with nails, or as if with nails.
Hammer
(anatomy) The malleus, a small bone of the middle ear.
Nail
(slang) To catch.
Hammer
(music) In a piano or dulcimer, a piece of wood covered in felt that strikes the string.
The sound the piano makes comes from the hammers striking the strings
Nail
To expose as a sham.
Hammer
(sports) A device made of a heavy steel ball attached to a length of wire, and used for throwing.
Nail
To accomplish (a task) completely and successfully.
I really nailed that test.
Hammer
(curling) The last stone in an end.
Nail
To hit (a target) effectively with some weapon.
Hammer
(frisbee) A frisbee throwing style in which the disc is held upside-down with a forehand grip and thrown above the head.
Nail
Of a male, to engage in sexual intercourse with.
Hammer
Part of a clock that strikes upon a bell to indicate the hour.
Nail
(military) To spike, as a cannon.
Hammer
One who, or that which, smites or shatters.
St. Augustine was the hammer of heresies.
Nail
(transitive) To nail down: to make certain, or confirm.
Hammer
(journalism) hammer headline
Nail
The horny scale of plate of epidermis at the end of the fingers and toes of man and many apes.
His nayles like a briddes claws were.
Hammer
(motor racing) The accelerator pedal.
Nail
The basal thickened portion of the anterior wings of certain hemiptera.
Hammer
To strike repeatedly with a hammer, some other implement, the fist, etc.
Nail
A slender, pointed piece of metal, usually with a head{2}, used for fastening pieces of wood or other material together, by being driven into or through them.
Hammer
To form or forge with a hammer; to shape by beating.
Nail
A measure of length, being two inches and a quarter, or the sixteenth of a yard.
Hammer
(figuratively) To emphasize a point repeatedly.
Nail
To fasten with a nail or nails; to close up or secure by means of nails; as, to nail boards to the beams.
He is now dead, and nailed in his chest.
Hammer
To hit particularly hard.
Nail
To stud or boss with nails, or as with nails.
The rivets of your arms were nailed with gold.
Hammer
To ride very fast.
Nail
To fasten, as with a nail; to bind or hold, as to a bargain or to acquiescence in an argument or assertion; hence, to catch; to trap.
When they came to talk of places in town, you saw at once how I nailed them.
Hammer
(intransitive) To strike internally, as if hit by a hammer.
I could hear the engine’s valves hammering once the timing rod was thrown.
Nail
To spike, as a cannon.
Hammer
To defeat (a person, a team) resoundingly
We hammered them 5-0!
Nail
Horny plate covering and protecting part of the dorsal surface of the digits
Hammer
To make high demands on (a system or service).
Nail
A thin pointed piece of metal that is hammered into materials as a fastener
Hammer
To declare (a person) a defaulter on the stock exchange.
Nail
A former unit of length for cloth equal to 1/16 of a yard
Hammer
To beat down the price of (a stock), or depress (a market).
Nail
Attach something somewhere by means of nails;
Nail the board onto the wall
Hammer
To have hard sex with.
Danielle hammered Mary til she came.
Nail
Take into custody;
The police nabbed the suspected criminals
Hammer
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.
Nail
Hit hard;
He smashed a 3-run homer
Hammer
Something which in form or action resembles the common hammer
He met the stern legionaries [of Rome] who had been the "massive iron hammers" of the whole earth.
Nail
Succeed in obtaining a position;
He nailed down a spot at Harvard
Hammer
A spherical weight attached to a flexible handle and hurled from a mark or ring. The weight of head and handle is usually not less than 16 pounds.
Nail
Succeed at easily;
She sailed through her exams
You will pass with flying colors
She nailed her astrophysics course
Hammer
To beat with a hammer; to beat with heavy blows; as, to hammer iron.
Nail
Locate exactly;
Can you pinpoint the position of the enemy?
The chemists could not nail the identity of the chromosome
Hammer
To form or forge with a hammer; to shape by beating.
Nail
Complete a pass
Hammer
To form in the mind; to shape by hard intellectual labor; - usually with out.
Who was hammering out a penny dialogue.
Hammer
To be busy forming anything; to labor hard as if shaping something with a hammer.
Whereon this month I have been hammering.
Hammer
To strike repeated blows, literally or figuratively.
Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.
Hammer
The part of a gunlock that strikes the percussion cap when the trigger is pulled
Hammer
A hand tool with a heavy rigid head and a handle; used to deliver an impulsive force by striking
Hammer
An athletic competition in which a heavy metal ball that is attached to a flexible wire is hurled as far as possible
Hammer
The ossicle attached to the eardrum
Hammer
A heavy metal sphere attached to a flexible wire; used in the hammer throw
Hammer
A striker that is covered in felt and that causes the piano strings to vibrate
Hammer
A power tool for drilling rocks
Hammer
The act of pounding (delivering repeated heavy blows);
The sudden hammer of fists caught him off guard
The pounding of feet on the hallway
Hammer
Beat with or as if with a hammer;
Hammer the metal flat
Hammer
Create by hammering;
Hammer the silver into a bowl
Forge a pair of tongues
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