jackhammer

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English

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A worker operating a jackhammer.

Etymology

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From jack +‎ hammer.

Noun

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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.
    Synonym: pneumatic drill
    Coordinate term: air hammer
  2. (figurative) Something that is very strong but also very rigid.
    • 2006 September, Skiing:
      A new skiercross pro tour is on the docket, as well as freeskiing. Just like racing, both require strong but supple legs rather than jackhammer quads.

Translations

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Verb

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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, chapter 33, in White Noise‎[1], Penguin, published 1986, page 254:
      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, chapter 9, in Iron Curtain Rising‎[2], San Francisco: Mercury House, page 171:
      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[3], Toronto: Insomniac Press, page 12:
      In the morning, the street is being jackhammered up.
  3. (transitive) To form (something) using a jackhammer.
    • 1944, Ernie Pyle, chapter 6, in Brave Men‎[4], New York: Henry Holt, page 69:
      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, chapter 3, in The World of Patience Gromes: Making and Unmaking a Black Community‎[5], Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, page 49:
      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, chapter 27, in The Empress of Mars‎[6], New York: Tom Doherty Associates, page 258:
      He was standing at a work table he’d jackhammered from a boulder, placidly sculpting a rose on its work surface.
  4. (intransitive, figurative) To move like a jackhammer.
    • 1977, Betsy Haynes, chapter 2, in The Ghost of the Gravestone Hearth‎[7], Nashville: Thomas Nelson, page 20:
      […] a bolt of lightning jackhammered across the sky, interrupting his dream.
    • 2003, Beverly Barton, chapter 16, in Grace under Fire‎[8], New York: Silhouette, pages 218–219:
      When he jackhammered into her, she clutched the bedspread and braced herself for the onslaught.
    • 2010, Dennis Lehane, chapter 7, in Moonlight Mile‎[9], New York: William Morrow, page 69:
      His left knee jackhammered under the desk, his right hand patted a steady bongo beat on the top.
    1. To beat hard, to pound. (of the heart or pulse)
      • 1995, Margaret Wild, chapter 2, in Beast‎[10], New York: Scholastic, page 7:
        […] he lay rigid, his heart jackhammering, telling himself that there was nothing out there, nothing […]
      • 2002, Tom Piccirilli, chapter 1, in The Night Class‎[11], New York: Leisure Books, page 7:
        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, figurative) To move (something) like a jackhammer.
    • 1999, Dean Koontz, chapter 68, in False Memory‎[12], New York: Bantam, published 2000, page 611:
      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, chapter 4, in Falling through the Earth‎[13], New York: Henry Holt, page 44:
      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, figurative) To strike (something) repeatedly with force, to pound.
    • 1966 April 15, “Rolling Thunder”, in Time:
      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, chapter 20, in Sweetheart‎[14], London: Secker & Warburg, page 197:
      He didn’t make love to her; he jackhammered her.
    • 1997, Richard Flanagan, chapter 78, in The Sound of One Hand Clapping, New York: Grove, published 2014:
      […] the thought jackhammered his heart and mind.

Further reading

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