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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:

But he turns up the volume on his rich voice so high, and so consistently, that Shakespeare’s verse comes across like the sound of a jackhammer without an off switch.

From The Wall Street Journal Feb. 14, 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

Let’s say you’re out on some rugged outcropping and you need to jump on your jackhammer for a few minutes.

From Slate Jul. 18, 2024

That’s roughly as loud as standing next to a pummeling jackhammer.

From Los Angeles Times Jan. 11, 2024

A long, shrill whistle blew, and the jackhammer men scrambled quickly to the tops of their lines.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

The roar of bulldozers and jackhammers drilling into piles of debris is almost constant.

From BBC Apr. 10, 2025

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

Dump trucks rumble throughout the small city, including in front of the 160-year-old City Hall, where jackhammers and excavators claw at the pavement, following plans to green the adjacent plaza with trees and benches.

From New York Times Apr. 12, 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 four jackhammers blasted again, sending sound waves bouncing around the webs and girders that held the bows in place.

From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George

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