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Glite Dictionary
to hammer in

to hammer in

1 4.6
Repeat something many times so a person remembers it
  • phrasal verb
  • /ˈhæmər ɪn/
  • Informal
translation icon : inculcar
  • I guess just to, to, to hammer hammer in what we mean by by culture and, and why culture eats the world.
  • hammered home

Examples

  • The key points of this book, You know, there's a couple couple key points that Mark tries to kind of really hammer in One is to realize that the market can do anything.

  • But representatives from the field's pioneers and a smattering of law professors are coming together to try to hammer out industry standards in the hopes of preempting government regulation with self-regulation.

    Academic text (1994)

  • I can tell you one thing, though: what was hammered in during selection and training was, among other things, "I will never, ever quit."

    Blog text (30)

  • Her words were simple and ones that she'd been hammering in the whole month of August.

    Blog text (26)

  • Then, no dream, but down to brass tacks, hammered in quick: "What can any of us do, what other skills do we have? I'm asking you, you get to a certain point in life and you have to ask yourself what else you could do?

    Fiction book (1994)

  • As the axioms of soil conservation were being hammered out in the Dust Bowl of the United States, the severity of the problem in African territories, such as Kenya, Lesotho, South Africa, and Nigeria, was being studied.

    Academic text (1994)

  • The teacher had to hammer in the importance of studying regularly for the exam.

  • He constantly hammered in the rules of grammar during the writing workshop.

  • Throughout the training, the coach worked hard to hammer in the strategies for winning.

Synonyms

to inculcate
vsto hammer in
  • Formal
9 8.1

Teach someone a belief or habit by repeating it often

teaches by repeating in a forceful and frequent way
to hammer home
vsto hammer in
6 4.4

To make an idea very clear by repeating it

teaches by repeating forcefully to instill knowledge or belief
to drill in
vsto hammer in
2 3.9

To make someone remember something by repeating it many times

uses forceful frequent repetition to instill ideas or habits
to ram down
vsto hammer in
  • Informal
1 7.9

To force ideas or rules on someone by repeating them against their will

teaches through forceful repetition but not necessarily against someone's will
to beat in
vsto hammer in
  • Informal
1 7.2

To train someone by repeating something until they learn it

uses repeated forceful telling to teach and fix ideas

Antonyms

to forget
∞ 1.0

Not remember something you should remember

to unlearn
9 6.4

To stop a habit or belief you had before

How Forceful

to hammer in
  • Informal
1 4.6
to drill
55 2.9
to teach
∞ 1.0
to instill
  • US
71 4.8
to remind
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

hammer in infinitive
hammered in past
hammered in past participle
hammering in present participle
hammers in third person singular

Morphology

hammer + in

The verb 'hammer' (to beat or pound repeatedly) combined with the directional particle 'in' yields a concrete image of driving something into place, which can be metaphorically extended to ‘driving an idea into someone’s mind.’ That metaphorical extension is fairly intuitive but requires mapping the physical action to a pedagogical sense (forceful, repeated instillation), so a B1 learner who knows the parts may guess the general idea but not the precise nuance without exposure.

Etymology

The phrasal verb hammer in comes from the image of using a hammer to hit a nail until it is pushed in and fixed firmly. That's why hammer in is used to mean 'to teach or fix an idea by repeating it many times'.