hamstring
/ˈhæmstɹɪŋ/
hamstring noun: one of the great tendons situated in each side of the ham, or space back of the knee, and connected with the muscles of the back of the thigh.
Noun
hamstring (plural hamstrings)
- One of the great tendons situated in each side of the ham, or space back of the knee, and connected with the muscles of the back of the thigh.
- Lanctot slipped the tourniquet around the other, just under his groin, and twisted it tight, clamping quadriceps and hamstring hard to bone.2021 October 20, C. J. Chivers, “Fear on Cape Cod as Sharks Hunt Again”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 17 Feb 2022
- The biceps femoris, semimembranosus, and semitendinosus muscles.
- Developing muscle around both sides of a joint (think biceps and triceps, abs and low back, quads and hamstrings) should be one of your primary training considerations because strength on each side leads to lower injury rates.2010, Adam Garett, “Fried Hams”, in Reps!, 17:23
Verb
hamstring (third-person singular simple present hamstrings, present participle hamstringing, simple past and past participle hamstrung or hamstringed)
- To lame or disable by cutting the tendons of the ham or knee; to hough.
- To cripple; to incapacitate; to disable.
- So have they hamstrung the valor of the subject by seeking to effeminate us all at home.1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Causes that hitherto have Hindred it. […], [London]: […] Thomas Vnderhill, →OCLC
- Its trademark policies of privatization, deregulation, tax cuts and free trade deals: these have liberated corporations to accumulate enormous profits and treat the atmosphere like a sewage dump, and hamstrung our ability, through the instrument of the state, to plan for our collective welfare.2017 July 17, Martin Lukacs, “Neoliberalism has conned us into fighting climate change as individuals”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 31 Aug 2020
- Synonyms:
- cripple, incapacitate, disable
hamstring meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
hamstring in Hindi
- हैमस्ट्रिंग, हैम्स्ट्रिंग, हैमस्ट्रिंंग
hamstring in Tamil
- பின் தொடைத் தசைநார்
hamstring in Marathi
- हॅमस्ट्रिंग, हॅम्स्ट्रिंग, हॅमस्ट्रिंंग
hamstring in Urdu
- hamstring, hough
- اپاہج کر دینا apāhaj kar denā
More languagesFewer languages
- hamstring in Bengali
- হ্যামস্ট্রিং, হামস্ট্রিং, হ্যাম্স্ট্রিং
- hamstring in Telugu
- హామ్స్ట్రింగ్
- hamstring in Malayalam
- പിൻതുടഞരമ്പു മുറിച്ചു ഞൊണ്ടിയാക്കുക, മുടന്തിക്കുക, നൊണ്ടിയാക്കുക, അംഗവിച്ഛേദം നടത്തുക
- hamstring in Kannada
- ಹ್ಯಾಮ್ಸ್ಟ್ರಿಂಗ್, ಹಾಮ್ಸ್ಟ್ರಿಂಗ್
- hamstring in Punjabi
- ਹੈਮਸਟਰਿੰਗ, ਹੈਮਸਟ੍ਰਿੰਗ
- hamstring in Gujarati
- હેમસ્ટ્રિંગ, હેમસ્ટ્રીંગ
- hamstring in Odia
- ହାମ୍ ଷ୍ଟ୍ରିଂ, ହାମ୍ଷ୍ଟ୍ରିଙ୍ଗ୍, ହାମ୍ଷ୍ଟ୍ରିଂ
- hamstring in Nepali
- ह्यामस्ट्रिङ, ह्यामस्ट्रिंग, ह्याम स्ट्रिङ
- hamstring in Tagalog
- litid sa alakalakan
- hamstring in Arabic
- وَتَر اَلْمَأْبَض watar al-maʔbaḍ, عَقَرَ ʕaqara
Examples of hamstring in a sentence
- He reinjured his hamstring two months after surgery.
- The hamstrings also get worked in a number of quad and glute moves.
- Muscle tightness: Inflexibility of the hamstrings, the iliotibial tracts, and iliopsoai tends to aggravate lower backache.
Synonyms of hamstring
Forms of hamstring
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | hamstrings |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | hamstrings |
| present participle | hamstringing |
| past participle | hamstrung |
| past | hamstrung |
| past participle | hamstringed |
| past | hamstringed |
Origin of hamstring
From ham (“region back of the knee joint”) + string.
Words formed from hamstring
Questions about hamstring
- What does hamstring mean?
- Hamstring means one of the great tendons situated in each side of the ham, or space back of the knee, and connected with the muscles of the back of the thigh.
- What is hamstring in Hindi?
- Hamstring in Hindi is हैमस्ट्रिंग, हैम्स्ट्रिंग, हैमस्ट्रिंंग. See Hamstring meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is hamstring?
- Hamstring can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce hamstring?
- Hamstring is pronounced /ˈhæmstɹɪŋ/.
- What is the plural of hamstring?
- The plural of hamstring is hamstrings.
Words near hamstring in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hamstring (page history and authors); hamstring (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hamstring (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hamstring (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); اپاہج کر دینا (Urdu) (page history and authors); hamstring (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hamstring (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hamstring (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); hamstring (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hamstring (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hamstring (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hamstring (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hamstring (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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)-Vealhurl-hamstring.wav.
Cite this entry: “hamstring.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hamstring. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.