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Synonyms

jackhammer

American  
[jak-ham-er] / ˈdʒækˌhæm ər /

noun

  • jackhammers
    plural
  1. a portable drill operated by compressed air and used to drill rock, break up pavement, etc.


jackhammer British  
/ ˈdʒækˌhæmə /

noun

  1. a hand-held hammer drill, driven by compressed air, for drilling rocks, etc

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of jackhammer

An Americanism dating back to 1925–30; jack 1 + hammer


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.

See Examples For:

If you’re a fan of Croatia, I think you might want to stop reading here and go do something less stressful, like operating a jackhammer, or wrestling a sock drawer full of cobras.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026

Carolyn Hove, raising her voice to be heard over the crew operating a jackhammer in front of her home, asked: “How much more are we supposed to go through?”

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2026

In the end, Guadagnino takes a jackhammer to everything he’s spent the last two-plus hours so meticulously building, but not quite in the way one might expect.

From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2025

Crucially, the song avoids the Eurovision cliches of jackhammer dance anthems and windswept balladry – something Remember Monday have in common with this year's favourites.

From BBC ● May 9, 2025

Its call less like the trumpet Frank wished for and more like a jackhammer.

From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers

Trump, who built a career as a real estate developer, has frequently touted the project, gushing over the sounds of jackhammers and excavation trucks.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2026

The technician positioned me to slide through the metal arc of an MRI machine while the sound of jackhammers pounded.

From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2024

“Every morning you can feel the vibrations from the jackhammers and you see rocks tumbling down,” one woman told state broadcaster Rai.

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2024

Unlike the nanoscale drills based on Nobel laureate Bernard Feringa's molecular motors, molecular jackhammers employ an entirely different - and unprecedented - mechanism of action.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 19, 2023

The constant vibrations from two jackhammers trembled the huge horizontal web, but Frightful stayed with her eggs.

From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George

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