drop the hammer

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ry commented on the word drop the hammer

to commit to or take decisive action. Derived from similar expressions in automotive contexts.
From definition-of.com:
American English idiom: Bringing a pending act to fruition. Usually connotates an act which will have serious consequences. Also used in reference to quickly increasing speed in a car by manipulating a manual transmission gear shift (the "hammer").
An answer on english.stackexchange.com:
possible that ... "drop the hammer" evolved from "put the hammer down," a trucking term. Robert Chapman & Barbara Kipfer, Dictionary of American Slang, third edition (1995) has this entry for hammer down:
hammer down, adv. phr. (truckers by 1960) Going full speed; with throttle to the floor; =wide open "...a herd of LA rednecks, all of 'em pie-eyed and hammer down"—Esquire
From an answer on Quora:
It's either hitting the gas very hard, or "dropping the clutch" at the beginning of a race.
If drop the hammer = drop the clutch, it means releasing the clutch very quickly to start ("launch") the car quickly from a dead stop
cf. lower the boom, hit the gas, give it the gun, pull out all the stops

November 8, 2019
bilby commented on the word drop the hammer

Re the tail end of that definition, I've heard it used in the race sense for humans too. For example in a middle- or long-distance race when a runner decides to sprint.

November 9, 2019