hammer-headed attitude
- noun
- /ˈhæmərˌhɛdɪd ˈætɪtjud/
- It's difficult to negotiate with someone who has such a hammer-headed attitude toward compromise.
Examples
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Her hammer-headed attitude kept her from accepting helpful criticism at work.
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She approached the problem with a hammer-headed attitude that frustrated her colleagues.
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Despite repeated advice, he stuck to his hammer-headed attitude and made no changes to his plan.
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His hammer-headed attitude made it difficult to reach an agreement.
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Her hammer-headed attitude kept her from accepting helpful criticism at work.
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He stuck to his hammer-headed attitude despite the team's suggestions for improvement.
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Negotiating with her was challenging due to her hammer-headed attitude on the issue.
Synonyms
10
8.7
Refusal to change your mind or to agree with others
1
7.9
Refusing to change your mind even when you are wrong
1
7.6
A way of acting that refuses to change your mind because of feelings or others' views
1
8.3
Refusing to change ideas or plans even when it is not reasonable
A way of doing things that is stubborn and refuses to change
Antonyms
How Stubborn
- Informal
1
7.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'hammer-headed' uses a metaphor (hammer = hard/forceful; -headed = having a mental trait) so the overall sense 'stubborn, inflexible' can be inferred by analogy with more common forms like 'hard-headed'. However, 'hammer-headed' is less conventional and relies on a figurative extension, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words may only partially predict the exact idiomatic nuance without prior exposure.
Etymology
Hammer-headed attitude may come from the image of a heavy hammer head that only hits one way and does not bend. So, it pictures someone who is 'stubborn' and 'refuses to change' their mind.