rammern.
/ˈramə/, U.S. /ˈræmər/ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > engine of war > [noun] > battering-ram
rameOE
wether14..
bowstowrec1425
rammera1460
montonc1515
battle-ram1535
horse1601
battering-ram1611
ram-engine1632
battering-engine1774
battering-machine1774
a1460 Knyghthode & Bataile (Pembr. Cambr. 243) 2262 (MED) Mak bosumy and angulous the wal, And so sette out therof the fundament With touris and turrettis oueral, That scale, engyne, or rammer therto sent Be ouer sette.
1546 T. Langley tr. P. Vergil Abridgem. Notable Worke ii. vii. 47 b The rammer called in Latin Aries wherwith walles be ouer~throwen was made by Epeus at Troye.
1572 J. Bridges tr. R. Gwalther Hundred, Threescore & Fiftene Homelyes vppon Actes Apostles 202 With this Rammer..the Popedome with all their market of pardons and merites, and all that confused Chaos of Monkish orders, are beaten downe, ouerturned, and brought to the grounde.
2.
a. An instrument for ramming or beating down earth by force, or setting paving stones, etc., in the ground. Cf. ram n.1 4.Originally a rammer was a hand-held length of wood with a reinforced end, which was thrust downwards vertically to deliver the blow.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > driving or beating tools > [noun] > rammers
stamper1484
wilkin1495
rammer1497
monkey1750
Hercules1794
punner1844
ram1875
boser1930
sheep's foot roller1934
1497 in M. Oppenheim Naval Accts. & Inventories Henry VII (1896) 89 Paving rammers of tymbre.
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 260/2 Rammer for husbandrie.
1600 R. Surflet tr. C. Estienne & J. Liébault Maison Rustique ii. liv. 372 You may beate it [sc. the earth] downe with a rammer of wood.
a1642 H. Best Farming & Memorandum Bks. (1984) 112 The rest have rammers for ramminge and beatinge of the earth downe into the hole.
1700 Moxon's Mech. Exercises: Bricklayers-wks. 17 If the Foundation be not very loose..it may be made good, by ramming in great Stones with a heavy Rammer.
a1706 J. Evelyn Direct. for Gardiner (1932) 81 These..walkes..should..be sometimes beaten..with a broad Rammer.
1766 Museum Rusticum 6 318 One person may be employed with a rammer, to follow five or six mowers.
1798 P. J. Laborie Coffee Planter of St. Domingo i. 42 An Oven may be made, at no expence..by digging a soil of clay..[and] beating the floor with a small rammer.
1825 ‘J. Nicholson’ Operative Mechanic 529 The earth must be struck with a rammer, and if found to shake, must be bored, to ascertain whether the shake be local or general.
1876 G. E. Voyle & G. de Saint-Clair-Stevenson Mil. Dict. (ed. 3) 325/2 Compressing, by means of rammers, the loose earth used in building parapets.
1898 Argosy May 315 It was like the sigh of the paver bringing down his rammer on the stones.
1929 Man 29 46 Their form resembles rather the iron head of the ‘rammer’ used by the navvies in England to beat down loose earth.
1953 R. J. C. Atkinson Field Archaeol. (ed. 2) i. 31 The first of these [methods], known as ‘bosing’, consists in percussing the surface of the ground with a weighted rammer and listening to the sound thus produced.
1985 BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (Nexis) 20 June A 25t rammer..intended to consolidate corrosive and non-corrosive soils, dams, piers and railbeds.
2006 Times (Nexis) 19 May 20 Tip in hardcore to a height of 100mm, and ‘tamp’ it by laying a board and stamping it down, or use an earth rammer.
b. A similar implement used for other purposes (as pressing down tobacco in a pipe, fulling cloth, etc.); a pestle or stamp.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > equipment for altering consistency > [noun] > crushing or grinding
mullet1398
mill1560
rammer1630
pulverizer1635
crackera1640
hand mill1656
grinder1688
mortar1733
pestle mill1773
pulverer1778
bruiser1809
smasher1822
muller1823
pug mill1824
crusher1825
pounding machine1839
pug1859
disintegrator1874
micronizer1934
1630 Wine, Beere, Ale & Tobacco (ed. 2) sig. D 1. Take your seale. 2. Draw your box. 3. Vncase your pipe. 4. Produce your rammer. 5. Blow you[r] pipe. 6. Open your box.
1635 Wit's Triumvirate f. 86 I giue & bequeath..My Tobacco Box and Rammer, with my munition of Pipes vnto the Artillery Yard.
1640 tr. J. A. Comenius Janua Linguarum Reserata (new ed.) xxxiii. §402 They stamped it [sc. barley] with a rough rammer in a bake house.
1755 Gentleman's Mag. Aug. 361/2 Ramming them [sc. ashes]..with a small light rammer, as tight as you can, without bursting the vatt.
1799 tr. C. Pajot des Charmes Art Bleaching Piece-goods xxviii. 286 It is requisite that the fulling rammers should be made lighter than usual.
1837 J. Badcock in N. Whittock et al. Compl. Bk. Trades 254 Very heavy pointed rammers fall upon the goods.
1852 C. Morfit Art of Tanning, Currying, & Leather-dressing (1853) 499 The skins..are beaten out with the mace, or rammer.
1893 Geogr. Jrnl. 2 517 Meal is prepared by first crushing the grain by means of heavy wooden rammers in hollowed-out wooden blocks, and then grinding it by hand between two stones.
1933 Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. 63 375 The plug is pushed into the mouth end of the tube by means of a rammer of wood called mmbana.
1968 Times 9 Oct. 12/5 The lock plate bearing a maker's stamp (the rammer and belt hook missing) was bought by an American bidder.
1995 Coffee Jrnl. Summer 54/2 A manually operated rammer forces hot water through a filter containing compressed coffee grounds, producing a..rich cup of coffee.
3.
a. A wooden or metal rod, with a cylindrical block of wood fixed at one end, used to drive home the charge of a cannon. Also: the ramrod of a firearm. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > equipment for use with firearms > [noun] > ramrod
rammer1497
gun-stick1589
ramrod1693
rammer rod1773
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > equipment for use with firearms > [noun] > rammer
rammer1627
1497 in M. Oppenheim Naval Accts. & Inventories Henry VII (1896) 125 Rammers for gonnes.
1539 J. Husee Let. 15 Oct. in Lisle Papers (P.R.O.: SP 3/5/8) f. 11 I delyuerd..the ij fawcons of brasse wt the charger rammar and molde.
?a1549 Inventory Henry VIII (1998) I. 114/2 Canon of brasse mounted vppon vnshodd wheles with ladells and Rammers.
1581 T. Styward Pathwaie to Martiall Discipline i. 44 The Caleuers or Coriers. such must haue either of them a good and sufficient peece, flaske, touch bore, pouder, shot, tier, yron, mould, rammor, sword, and dagger.
1627 J. Smith Sea Gram. xiv. 66 A Rammer is a bob of wood at the other end [of the sponge] to ramme home the Powder and the Waddings.
1669 S. Sturmy Mariners Mag. v. 68 Then with the Rammer put the Powder home gently.
1692 Smith's Sea-mans Gram. (new ed.) ii. xxi. 134 Put the Cartredge home with the Rammer.
1745 Flanders Delineated 306 Spunge, a long Staff or Rammer.
1778 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 68 68 The powder was forced up with only one stroke of the rammer.
1800 M. Symes Acct. Embassy to Ava xviii. 416 Near it lay a long rammer and sponge staff.
1834 F. Marryat Peter Simple II. xiv. 233 As the men withdrew the rammer, a shot from the enemy entered the muzzle.
1879 Man. Siege & Garrison Artillery Exercises 8 Overbank carriages, jointed rammers, &c., for our siege guns.
1936 Times 6 June 9/1 Horse artillery of Wellington's epoch advance, unlimber, and get to work with sponge and rammer.
1960 D. Pope Decision at Trafalgar xxiv. 304 A midshipman at one group of guns reported that they were battering each other with rammers.
1997 T. Pynchon Mason & Dixon iv. 38 We were soon close enough..to see the ends of the rammers backing through the gun-ports.
b. A tool used to firm or pack materials used in chemical experiments or blasting operations.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > equipment or apparatus > [noun] > instruments
rammer1660
water hammer1765
saccharometer1784
thermometer1801
alcoholometer1803
alcohometer1809
cryophorus1813
nitrometer1821
alcoometer1825
alcoholmeter1831
blanchimeter1847
wet-bulb1849
absorptiometer1855
microtome1856
argentometer1879
Brix1897
Ostwald pycnometer1898
turbidimeter1905
Ostwald viscometer1911
oedometer1915
impinger1922
polarograph1925
photogoniometer1927
ultramicrotome1953
1660 R. Boyle New Exper. Physico-mechanicall xxiii. 185 The lower end of the Glass rammer (if we may so call it).
1701 R. Howlett School of Recreation (new ed.) 36 With the end of your Rammer force down the end that stands a little above; so that it may cover the Powder, and then seal it down with wax.
1740 G. Smith tr. Laboratory (ed. 2) App. p. xxxii The rammer one diameter shorter than the mould.
1799 R. Kerr tr. A. Lavoisier Elements Chem. (ed. 4) iii. ix. 533 Every portion of the materials introduced must be rammed down with a rammer nearly of the same caliber with the barrel.
1890 Times 4 Apr. 5/5 The hole in the coal was drilled. The cartridge was pressed into it with a copper rammer.
1915 A. Marshall Explosives 213 A charge of undoubtedly hard frozen Samsonite exploded whilst being rammed home with a wooden rammer.
1961 Proc. Royal Soc. B. 154 501 Whatman Standard Grade cellulose powder was packed dry into columns using a wooden rammer.
4. A piledriver.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > driving or beating tools > [noun] > pile-drivers
wilkin1495
rammer1538
gin1682
pile engine1754
piling engine1763
piledriver1766
ringing engine1837
postdriver1857
1538 T. Elyot Dict. Fistuca, an instrument, wherwith pyles of wodde be dryuen into the ground..called a rammer.
1576 A. Golding tr. Life Jasper Colignie sig. F3 First heauing out fowrteene pyles of timber,..he draue them with rammers into the chanell of the riuer.
1653 W. Blith Eng. Improver Improved (new ed.) ii. xxxvii. 244 Your poles of each hill lean them rather outward from one another, and with your rammer ram them outward and not inward.
1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. 480/2 A Rammer, or an Instrument to Drive Piles into the Ground.
1729 Weekly Jrnl. 19 Apr. in C. J. Fèret Fulham (1900) I. xiv. 57 The Rammer for driving them is 1,500 Pound weight, and the Piles are forced in nine or ten Foot deep.
1775 N. D. Falck Philos. Diss. Diving Vessel 27 The next implement was a rammer, with which the blocks were to be driven into the object.
1841 H. H. Arnold tr. L. Döderlein Hand-bk. Lat. Synonymes 204 A larger sort of pale or stake, like a pole or the stem of a tree, which must be driven into the earth with a rammer.
1853 Nicholson's Operative Mechanic (ed. 4) 313 The rammer made use of to drive piles.
1939 L. de Vries German-Eng. Sci. Dict. 308 Rammbär, rammer, pile driver.
2003 Weekly Times (Austral.) (Nexis) 12 Nov. 110 The three-point-hitch mounted rammer can drive posts from 2.4m down to 1.1m.
5. coarse slang. The penis.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > sex organs > male sex organs > [noun] > penis
weapona1000
tarsec1000
pintleOE
cock?c1335
pillicock?c1335
yard1379
arrowa1382
looma1400
vergea1400
instrumentc1405
fidcocka1475
privya1500
virile member (or yard)?1541
prickc1555
tool1563
pillock1568
penis1578
codpiece1584
needle1592
bauble1593
dildo1597
nag1598
virility1598
ferret1599
rubigo?a1600
Jack1604
mentula1605
virge1608
prependent1610
flute1611
other thing1628
engine1634
manhood1640
cod1650
quillity1653
rammer1653
runnion1655
pego1663
sex1664
propagator1670
membrum virile1672
nervea1680
whore-pipe1684
Roger1689
pudding1693
handle?1731
machine1749
shaft1772
jock1790
poker1811
dickyc1815
Johnny?1833
organ1833
intromittent apparatus1836
root1846
Johnson1863
Peter1870
John Henry1874
dickc1890
dingusc1890
John Thomasc1890
old fellowc1890
Aaron's rod1891
dingle-dangle1893
middle leg1896
mole1896
pisser1896
micky1898
baby-maker1902
old man1902
pecker1902
pizzle1902
willy1905
ding-dong1906
mickey1909
pencil1916
dingbatc1920
plonkerc1920
Johna1922
whangera1922
knob1922
tube1922
ding1926
pee-pee1927
prong1927
pud1927
hose1928
whang1928
dong1930
putz1934
porkc1935
wiener1935
weenie1939
length1949
tadger1949
winkle1951
dinger1953
winky1954
dork1961
virilia1962
rig1964
wee-wee1964
Percy1965
meat tool1966
chopper1967
schlong1967
swipe1967
chode1968
trouser snake1968
ding-a-ling1969
dipstick1970
tonk1970
noonies1972
salami1977
monkey1978
langer1983
wanker1987
1653 T. Urquhart tr. F. Rabelais 2nd Bk. Wks. ix. 62 St. Trinian's rammer unstitch your bum.
1680 M. Stevenson Wits Paraphras'd 72 That such nice Dames shou'd for a Ball Uncase their Scutts, and shew you all, Then send to me to scowr your Rammer.
1883 Boudoir Mag. No. 4. 160 He gave a hard push, sending his rammer in three or four inches, and then..thrust again and again, clasping her fainting body.
1999 C. A. Duffy World's Wife 68 I'm..equally sick up to here with the beef bayonet, the pork sword.., the rammer, the slammer, the rupert, the shlong.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > footwear > shoe or boot > shoe > [noun] > types of > heavy or strong shoe
plod shoe1697
rammer1810
clumpera1825
brogan1846
Conestoga1892
brogue shoe1906
1810 Splendid Follies I. 127 If you had but a pair of pink slippers on instead of those confounded rammers.
7. A person engaged in ramming (in various senses of the verb).
ΚΠ
1873 O. H. Ernst Man. Pract. Mil. Engin. ii. xl. 152 Rammers should never allow a greater depth than 6″ of earth to accumulate without ramming it.
1876 G. E. Voyle & G. de Saint-Clair-Stevenson Mil. Dict. (ed. 3) 326/1 The word rammer is also applied to the men employed in that duty [sc. the ramming of loose earth].
1918 Times 18 May 6/2 Carless..went on serving the gun at which he was acting as rammer until he fell.
1985 S. J. Ross Workers on Edge iii. 275 In the eleven days before May 1, the previously unorganized street pavers and rammers..voted to unionize.
1997 Birmingham (Alabama) News (Nexis) 12 May 1 a ‘I was in charge of getting the sparks out,’ Gibbs said. ‘I was the rammer and the sponger.’
Compounds
C1. Instrumental.† rammer-beaten adj. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1834 W. S. Landor Citation & Exam. Shakspere 87 The groundwork and religious duty not being well rammer-beaten and flinted.
C2. † rammer rod n. Obsolete rare = ramrod n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > equipment for use with firearms > [noun] > ramrod
rammer1497
gun-stick1589
ramrod1693
rammer rod1773
1773 J. Hawkesworth Acct. Voy. Southern Hemisphere III. iii. xii. 713 The shock forced the musket out of his hand, and broke the rammer rod.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.a1460