claw hammern.
/ˈklɔː hamə/, U.S. /ˈklɔ ˌhæmər/, /ˈklɑ ˌhæmər/ 1. A hammer with one end of the head split into a pair of curved claws that may be used to extract nails.
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1622 R. Whitbourne Disc. containing Invitation for Advancem. Plantation in New-found-land 26 (table) Foure Mattocks, and foure Cloe hammers.
1724 Applebee's Orig. Weekly Jrnl. 7 Nov. 3332/1 She tyed a strong Claw-Hammer, and a File to a String..and let it down the same Chimney.
1801 Scioto (Ohio) Gaz. 17 Sept. She was beat to death with a board and a claw hammer.
1850 Newcastle Guardian 13 July 2/6 Boats should never go to sea without nails, a claw hammer, a saw, and a pair of pinchers.
1932 Pop. Mech. Feb. 307/2 With the use of a pinch bar or a heavy claw hammer and a woodscrew, sunken floorboards can easily be repaired.
1993 Collins Compl. DIY Man. (new ed.) xi. 489/1 If a nailhead is too small to catch in a claw hammer, lever it out with carpenter's pincers.
2011 F. Cottam Resident 176 Max would require his claw hammer to grip the nail heads and pry them from the wood.
2. U.S. colloquial. A formal tailcoat; = claw-hammer coat at Compounds 1. Now rare.
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1855 N. Hawthorne Jrnl. 16 Nov. in Eng. Notebks. (1997) I. 400 Sea-captains call a dress-coat a ‘claw-hammer’.
1901 Washington Post 22 Dec. 13/5 Clad in a blue claw hammer with bright brass buttons, he would have been a perfect type of the days of Webster, Clay, and Calhoun.
1932 El Paso (Texas) Herald-Post 6 Dec. 4/7 A continual line of carriages deposited gayly attired loads, with the military uniform and conventional black claw hammer much in evidence.
Compounds
C1. colloquial (originally and chiefly U.S.). As a modifier, esp. in claw-hammer coat. Designating a tailcoat for formal wear (because of the supposed resemblance of the tails to the split head of a claw hammer). Also: designating the tails of such a coat. Now chiefly historical.
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1842 Boston Post 10 Aug. A tall fellow, dressed in a claw-hammer coat that had once been blue.
1844 Knickerbockier Dec. 562 I rigged myself in my best claw-hammer jacket, a pair of trousers which sheeted home at the bottom, and rowed on shore.
1897 M. E. M. Davis Elephant's Track 219 The low-cut vest gave him a queerish sensation; the coat made him blush. He pulled uneasily at the claw-hammer tails.
1936 Daily Mail (Hull) 17 Oct. 4/4 As for the claw hammer coat and the rest of that grim ensemble in which the unhappy Englishman is expected to go gay,..[etc.].
1994 G. Bowering Shoot! ii. 19 He had a black clawhammer coat and a black hat.
C2. As a modifier. Designating a style of banjo playing in which the thumb and fingers strum or pluck the strings in a downward motion, and the fingers are held in a claw-like position; of, in, or relating to this style.
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1963 Lubbock (Texas) Avalanche-Jrnl. 15 Feb. (Evening ed.) 6 a/3 (advt.) 5-string banjo! Learn to play: Scrugg's ‘Claw hammer’..Seeger style.
1966 Southwest Times (Pulaski, Va.) 14 Aug. 5/1 (caption) Happy is entered in the claw hammer banjo picking contest at the 31st annual Galax Convention and hs is also playing in a band.
1986 Crain's Chicago Business (Nexis) 24 Nov. 25 The claw-hammer banjo technique (rendered archaic once Earl Scruggs invented his fiery, three-finger picking method for bluegrass in the 1940s).
2003 W. Gayheart & D. S. Eley Willard Gayheart, Appalachian Artist 16 There's a distinct difference between old time and bluegrass, with bluegrass being identified with a three-finger style banjo playing and old time identified with a claw hammer style and nearly always a fiddle.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2022).
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