The deal was hammered out over several days…”. Hammer is a very old word, coming from the Old English hamor and originally meant a stone tool. To hammer out a deal is to work on it laboriously. To hammer away at something is to work hard and persistently. King Edward I of England was known as the Hammer of the Scots because of his brutal treatment toward the Scottish people. He butchered all the inhabitants of the town of Berwick, over 10,000 men, women and children.
“Thirty staff are facing the axe”. As well as being a chopping tool, axe is a verb – sometimes your favourite TV show is axed. Having an axe to grind means having a private reason to be doing something.
“He nailed his own political coffin…” Nail, the familiar carpenter’s spike, is frequently used as a verb to mean detect or catch (a suspect), to expose (a lie), to strike successfully (at sport), or to secure a victory. To nail someone down is to extract a commitment from someone.
“It was drilled into us from an early age that we should stick together…” A drill is a tool with a rotating point that makes holes. It’s also a verb meaning to instil deeply, as in attitudes or behaviour. To drill down is a computer term meaning to access data from a menu and submenu of topics.
“The council takes a sledgehammer to smoking habits”. Sledgehammer, as well as being a heavy rock-breaking tool, means ‘ruthlessly crushing’. Something unrefined might be said to have the subtlety of a sledgehammer. It is derived from the Anglo Saxon slægan, which means ‘to strike violently’ and is related to the words slag, slay and slog.
“His square jaw and chiselled features gave him the edge on screen…” Why is it only facial features, especially cheekbones, that are described as chiselled? The long-bladed chisel used for shaping can trace its name all the way back to the Latin caedere ‘to cut’. It also means to swindle someone out of something – “They chiselled me out of my inheritance”.
Well that’s the nuts and bolts of my vocabulary tool kit!
Happy Puzzling!
