Word.ws English Dictionary

hammer and tongs

hammer and tongs phrase: in a manner indicating seriousness of intent and capability of harm.

hammer and tongs: in a manner indicating seriousness of intent and capability of harm
Image: The wub, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Phrase

hammer and tongs

  1. (idiomatic) In a manner indicating seriousness of intent and capability of harm.
    • When they had an argument they went at it hammer and tongs.
    • Trafton was personally challenged, in the Davenport hotel Saturday evening, and a handful of these birds from Rock Island heckled and "razzed" him into bets that he would be forced to take time before the end of the first quarter. Trafton bet till his money was gone and went into the game yesterday...1920 November 8, “Islanders and Staleys Battle To Scoreless Draw in Sensational Game”, in Quad City Times

hammer and tongs meaning in Tamil and Urdu

hammer and tongs in Tamil

பேராற்றலும் பேரொலியும்

hammer and tongs in Urdu

کرختی سے, شور مچا کر

Examples of hammer and tongs in a sentence

  • Trafton bet till his money was gone and went into the game yesterday hammer and tongs.1920 November 8, “Islanders and Staleys Battle To Scoreless Draw in Sensational Game”, in Quad City Times:
  • The lost time had been recovered at Lichfield, but Corbett and Walls continued to put the engine to it hammer and tongs all the way to Crewe.1960 April, O. S. Nock, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 268:

Synonyms of hammer and tongs

Origin of hammer and tongs

Perhaps from the use of a hammer and tongs by traditional blacksmiths. May also be suggestive of the manner in which the hammer is used.

Words formed from hammer and tongs

Questions about hammer and tongs

What does hammer and tongs mean?
Hammer and tongs means in a manner indicating seriousness of intent and capability of harm.
What is hammer and tongs in Tamil?
Hammer and tongs in Tamil is பேராற்றலும் பேரொலியும். See Hammer and tongs meaning in Tamil.
How do you use hammer and tongs in a sentence?
Trafton bet till his money was gone and went into the game yesterday hammer and tongs.
What part of speech is hammer and tongs?
Hammer and tongs is a phrase.

Words near hammer and tongs in the dictionary

  1. Hammen
  2. Hammens
  3. hammer
  4. hammer and anvil
  5. hammer and sickle
  6. hammer and tongs
  7. hammer away
  8. hammer beam
  9. hammer beam roof
  10. hammer beam truss
  11. hammer beams

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hammer and tongs (page history and authors); hammer and tongs (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hammer and tongs (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-hammer and tongs.wav, en-au-hammer and tongs.ogg.

Cite this entry: “hammer and tongs.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hammer_and_tongs. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.