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
Refusal to change your mind or to agree with others
Refusing to change your mind even when you are wrong
Refusing to change ideas or plans even when it is not reasonable
A way of acting that refuses to change your mind because of feelings or others' views
A way of doing things that is stubborn and refuses to change
Antonyms
How Stubborn
- Informal
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.