Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to copulate (vigorously) with.

1594		Lyly Mother Bombie V iii: vic.: Yet being brother and sister, there was a match in hammering betwixt them. mem.: What monstrous tale is this? [...] vic.: My verie bowels earned within me, that I shuld be author of such vilde incest.
1837		‘The Female Workwoman’ in Icky-Wickey Songster 44: He [...] hammered my kettle with all his might.
a.1949		N. Algren ‘Paper Daisies’ in Entrapment (2009) 104: ‘Come down I hammer your board,’the carpenter invited her with a leer [...] ‘You try carpenter’s hammer! You try, you like! Try for size! Come quick!’.
1971		J. Mandelkau Buttons 65: He started hammering vigorously.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 5: All I kept thinking of when I was hammering this black chick is that y’all [...] fuck in a furious fuckin’ way.
2002		D. Shaw ‘Dead Beard’ at www.asstr.org 🌐 Me, I couldn’t care less what Dionne thinks because I just love hammering it up a bird’s queen mum but my duchess won’t be in it so this is a real nice rifle range.

2. (also hammer up) to beat up, to hurt physically, to defeat comprehensively; thus hammerer, an aggressive fighter; hammering, a comprehensive beating; also used fig.

1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 35: Seeing as how those Swells, that made / Old Boney quit the hammering trade. [Ibid.] 57: And hammering right and left, with ponderous swing, / Ruffian’d the reeling youngster round the Ring.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 83: There was a most excellent mill at Moulsey Hurst on Thursday last, between the Gas-light man, who appears to be a game chicken, and a prime hammerer—he can give and take with any man—and Oliver—Gas beat him hollow, it was all Lombard-street to a china orange.
1824		National Advocate (N.Y.) 7 June 2/3: He certainly exhibited proof of having long studied in the hammer school, and we hope that some of the fancy will bail him for the honor of the corps. [Ibid.] 8 Apr. 2/4: He floored a coachy, beat the marshalls, and would have given the magistrates a sample of the hammer school but he could not reach them.
1827		Commercial Advertiser (N.Y.) 17 July 2/3: The deceased was of a boisterous disposition and had frequently hammered the witness.
1833		‘The Pugilistic Feats Of Jack Scroggins’ in Lummy Chaunter 52: He hammer’d next the smith, saying, ‘you will repent your folly’.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 26 Nov. n.p.: Again did he find her hammering most unmercifully one of the best grocers in Brooklyn.
1848		Sinks of London Laid Open 73: The fellow hammered away at his helpless helpmate with hard words and harder blows.
1849		Bell’s Life in Sydney 21 July 3/2: [He] did threaten to astound, astonish, bunt, batter, crush, croak, damage, destroy, eat, embowel, fake,flog, grass, gall, harass, hammer, injure, impinge, jam, job, kill, knock-out, larrup, lick, mummyfy, murder, nail, nauseate, unify, obliterate, pound, punish, quiet, quench, rush, roast, settle, splfllicate, tear-to-atoms, terrify, ’ug, ’umbug, velt, vip, wiolute, wanquish, xasperate, xtinguish, and yoke-up the Zany.
1853		Bell’s Life in Sydney 9 July 3/1: After receiving a good hammering he was nailed to the watch-house.
1856		Northampton Mercury 19 Apr. 3/1: Mrs Jones held him while her husband ‘hammered’ him.
1866		H.L. Williams N.-Y. After Dark 36: Hammer away, old fellers.
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Jan. 12/1: ‘Oh, he’s been enjoying hisself,’ was the reply, ‘he’s bin drunk since Friday, lost his billet on Toosday, hammered mother yesterday, and they took him to the lock-up last night.’.
1890		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 24 May 3/2: ‘I often licked her worse than I did on Monday. I admit I’ve hammered her, but she don’t got enough, that’s what's the matter with her’.
1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 128: I didn’t much care when he caught me, and gave me a hammering.
1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 256: ’Course they hammer me every now an’ then when they take me to the station-house.
1900		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 24 Nov. 6/1: He had recovered from the hammering.
1908		Magnet 15 Feb. 3: He received a good hammering.
1911		St.J. Ervine Mixed Marriage Act III: Aw, there’s times when a wumman’s sick o’ men an’ their folly. Can’t ye go through the wurl’ without hammerin’ wan another like bastes o’ the fiel’.
1914		H. Hershfield Abie the Agent 21 Apr. [synd. cartoon strip] We got to hammer up Benny Sparkbaum’s ‘Collapsibles’ [...] Watch the game — be wide waked up.
1919		Marvel 3 Mar. 5: Hammer him! Go it, Bodder! Rattle it into the pig! Lam him!
1922		Wodehouse Clicking of Cuthbert 115: Poor fish! All he ever did was to get hammered at Waterloo!
1940		S. Sterling ‘Ten Carats of Lead’ in Black Mask Stories (2010) 240/2: I hammered Dumont until I dragged the babe!s address outa him.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 47: Last nicht I got an awful hammerin’. / Wha frae?
1969		N. Cohn Awopbop. (1970) 200: He was [...] hammered by the press, much insulted by the industry.
1974		H. Levin Bandiet 153: Dopey was a young bandiet [...] who had once been a keen and very proficient boxer, but he got hammered silly in a series of boxing matches in jail.
1980		J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 97: I’ve had a few hammerings – I don’t like a bloody hammering.
1986		R. Fitzgerald Pushed from the Wings (1989) 69: Hammering a few hundred demonstrators [...] is fine for the sake of law and order.
1990		J. Wambaugh Golden Orange (1991) 351: He’d been sober for forty-one days, had stopped hammering his frontal lobes with massive daily doses of alcohol.
1992		M. Coleman Fatty 92: When we played Wests in those early days you knew it was a pretty fair bet you were going to get hammered off the ball [Ibid.] 101: ‘We hammered Parramatta 20-nil in the major semi and went straight into the grand final’.
1993		R. Doyle Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha 78: I was about to be hammered by my da.
1999		Guardian Media 21 June 2: You hammer the person who’s making you uncomfortable by undermining him.
2000		Indep. on Sun. Rev. 23 Jan. 6: Midge and Tex are sparring enthusiastically. Couch says, ‘You’re gettin’ ’ammered, Grandad!’.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 83/2: hammer v. to seriously assault someone.
2007		D. McDonald Luck in the Greater West (2008) 203: They hammered me, mate.
2008		D.R. Pollock ‘I Start Over’ in Knockemstiff 169: Jill’s squished up in the corner like she’s afraid I’m going to hammer her next.
2015		N. Cummins Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] I’m certain he wanted to kill me [and] there was the odd occasion when I thopught about hammering him, too.

3. (Aus./US) to drive at maximum speed.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Mar. 4/1: Here we are, hammering along against a very strong head wind.
1989		J. Hibberd Memoirs of an Old Bastard 157: Ngo hammered the Riley from Queenscliff to Geelong.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 4: Some testo’d turk tryin to powder his snout off of the dash of his Audi while he’s hammerin 60.

4. lit. or fig., to assail, to pressurize.

1905		Sporting Times 18 Mar. 1/5: How the poor devil did hammer at ’em that night! Did his gags go? Yes—rotten!
1912		H.G. van Campen ‘Our Theatrical Boarding House’ in L.A. Herald 10 Dec. 10/4: ‘Can’t a man mention a matter without bringin’ on three days’ hammerin’?’.
1981		G.V. Higgins Rat on Fire (1982) 130: If they decide they want to hammer her, they can do it.
2000		Ottawa Sun 11 Feb. 14: Knowing they would be hammered with questions about where the supposedly missing money went, they’ve responded with a vengeance. They’re snowing us under with information.
2004		P. Howard PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 35: It’s, like, any little excuse to hammer you.
2007		R. Milward Apples (2023) 27: I wasn’t sure why she hammered Fairhurst so much.
2016		Eve. Standard (London) 29 Feb. 🌐 Amazon link-up with Morrisons hammers Ocado.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers 75: He’s [...] hammered room service .

5. (orig. US campus) to drink fast, usu. of beer.

1989		P. Munro Sl. U. 99: Paul hammered three beers as soon as he got home from school.
2012		M. McBride Frank Sinatra in a Blender [ebook] I hamered the first two shots and thought about a bowl of chili.
1992		G.P. Pelecanos Firing Offense 42: The evening progressed with McGinnes and me hammering malt liquors one for one in the back room at an alarming rate.
2020		G. Armstrong Young Team 135: [T]here fuckin heidbangers wid be hammerin it aw day.

6. (US campus) to excel.

1993

Eble Campus Sl. Apr.

7. to take a large amount of a drug, usu. cocaine.

2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 101: It’s the beak. Every cunt’s been hammering it since the train left Lime Street.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers [24]: Sick Boy and I are hammering the ching, with loads ay others.

8. to masturbate.

2003

Adam ‘What Michael’s Forgetting’ posting 18 Apr. at 4BitterGuys.com 🌐 He can crack a stiffy like fury when he’s up for a challenge. And do you know why? Because He’s a bloke, that’s why. He has a man’s needs. If His fists weren’t nailed to that plank of wood He’d be up there, hammering away like there was no tomorrow. Mind, I wouldn’t want to be the bloke nailed to the cross in front of Him. That’s some holy water I could do without, thanks very much.