hammock
1 Americannoun
noun
noun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of hammock
First recorded in 1545–55; from Spanish hamaca, from Taíno (Hispaniola)
Explanation
A hammock is a rope or canvas bed that hangs from a stand, two trees, or another support. You might enjoy reading a book while lying in a hammock under a shady tree. Most people use hammocks to nap or relax, rather than sleeping in them all night, and many kids enjoy swinging back and forth in a hammock. In some cultures and special situations, hammocks have been used for regular sleeping — for example, hammocks were once commonly found on ships, providing sailors with easily portable beds. Hammock comes from the Spanish hamaca, a variation on the Taino hamaka, "fish nets."
Vocabulary lists containing hammock
The Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer
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Vocabulary from Academy Award Nominees and Winners
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The Lions of Little Rock
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Curling up in a hammock with a lemonade and a copy of “Clifford the Big Red Dog?”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
“Allowing myself to go outside and read in the hammock in the middle of the day or take a walk — it felt indulgent,” she says.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 10, 2025
If you Google the LLM-hallucinated hammock expert Jennifer Campos, the first result is the Inquirer insert.
From Slate ● May 21, 2025
The other shows them on a hammock, with Woods lying on his back and Trump with her head resting on his chest and her arm draped around him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 24, 2025
Ben slid out of his hammock and made his way quickly to his mother’s room.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
