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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
hammock
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A clothes-line hangs between two high windows, hovering above like a tawdry hammock from the sky.
▪ At night, they sleep on hammocks in plastic-sheeting shelters or on the frigid, rain-soaked earth.
▪ Filled with relief, I got out of the hammock to greet him.
▪ He got a blanket and tucked her into the hammock as if into a steamer chair.
▪ He reached and enclosed the boy in his great hammock of an arm, and with the other arm began to yank.
▪ They all sleep on board in hammocks.
▪ We slept in hammocks, on mats and newspapers and there was no water or electricity.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Hammock

Hammock \Ham"mock\ (h[a^]m"m[o^]k), n. [A word of Indian origin: cf. Sp. hamaca. Columbus, in the Narrative of his first voyage, says: ``A great many Indians in canoes came to the ship to-day for the purpose of bartering their cotton, and hamacas, or nets, in which they sleep.'']

  1. A swinging couch or bed, usually made of netting or canvas about six feet long and three feet wide, suspended by clews or cords at the ends.

  2. A piece of land thickly wooded, and usually covered with bushes and vines. Used also adjectively; as, hammock land. [Southern U. S.]
    --Bartlett.

    Hammock nettings (Naut.), formerly, nets for stowing hammocks; now, more often, wooden boxes or a trough on the rail, used for that purpose.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
hammock

1650s, alteration of hamaca (1550s), from Spanish hamaca, from Arawakan (Haiti) word apparently meaning "fish nets" (compare Yukuna hamaca, Taino amaca).

Wiktionary
hammock

n. 1 A swinging couch or bed, usually made of netting or canvas about six feet wide, suspended by clews or cords at the ends. 2 (context US archaic outside dialects English) A piece of land thickly wooded, and usually covered with bushes and vines.

WordNet
hammock
  1. n. a small natural hill [syn: knoll, mound, hillock, hummock]

  2. a hanging bed of canvas or rope netting (usually suspended between two trees); swing easily [syn: sack]

Gazetteer
Wikipedia
Hammock

A hammock is a sling made of fabric, rope, or netting, suspended between two points, used for swinging, sleeping, or resting. It normally consists of one or more cloth panels, or a woven network of twine or thin rope stretched with ropes between two firm anchor points such as trees or posts. Hammocks were developed by native inhabitants of Central and South America for sleeping. Later, they were used aboard ships by sailors to enable comfort and maximize available space, and by explorers or soldiers travelling in wooded regions and eventually by parents in the 1920s for containing babies just learning to crawl. Today they are popular around the world for relaxation; they are also used as a lightweight bed on camping trips. The hammock is often seen as symbol of summer, leisure, relaxation and simple, easy living.

Hammock (ecology)

Hammock is a term used in the southeastern United States for stands of trees, usually hardwood, that form an ecological island in a contrasting ecosystem. Hammocks grow on elevated areas, often just a few inches high, surrounded by wetlands that are too wet to support them. The term hammock is also applied to stands of hardwood trees growing on slopes between wetlands and drier uplands supporting a mixed or coniferous forest. Types of hammocks found in the United States include tropical hardwood hammocks, temperate hardwood hammocks, and maritime or coastal hammocks. Hammocks are also often classified as hydric (wet soil), mesic (moist soil) or xeric (dry soil). The types are not exclusive, but often grade into each other.

Unlike many ecosystems of the coastal plain of the southeastern United States, hammocks are not tolerant of fire. Hammocks tend to occur in locations where fire is not common, or where there is some protection from fire in neighboring ecosystems. Hammocks have begun developing in historic times in areas where fire has been suppressed through human intervention, or where elevations above wetlands have been created by dredging, mining, road and causeway building, and other human activities. On the other hand, many hammocks have been destroyed by development, as they often occur on higher land in desirable locations, such as barrier islands and other waterfront locations.

The etymology of the term "hammock" is obscure. Dictionaries usually give it as an archaic form of " hummock" ("hammock" appeared in print earlier than "hummock"). "Hammock" is first attested in English in the 1550s as a nautical term for a tree-covered island (a mound of trees) seen on the horizon. "Hammock" is used to refer to stands of hardwood trees on the coastal plain from North Carolina to Mississippi.

Hammock (band)

Hammock is an American two-member ambient/ post-rock band from Nashville, Tennessee. Hammock creates atmospheric music by combining live instrumentation, electronic beats and droning guitar.

Hammock (disambiguation)

A hammock is a device used to sleep or rest in.

Hammock may also refer to:

  • Hammock (band), an American post-rock group
  • Hammock (ecology), a dense stand of trees
  • Hammock Music, a record label
  • Charles Hammock (1941–2014), American politician from Pennsylvania
  • Cicero C. Hammock (1823–1890), American politician from Georgia
  • Robby Hammock (born 1977), American Major League Baseball player
  • Christina Hammock (born 1979), NASA astronaut

Usage examples of "hammock".

The most they can manage is a sort of diagonal slouch: feet on the floor, necks bent up against the bulkhead, Acton cradling her like a living hammock.

Mr Adams on the other hand was all agasp and aswim, obliged to be sponged in a hammock under the weatherawnings, and Mrs Homer lost her looks entirely, going yellow and thin.

If Slysaw Bander had eternal life, clone or no clone, I would not sleep soundly in my hammock anywhere in this chasm or, it may be, in this world.

Across the way, Tagwen was looking similarly disoriented, staring blankly into space from his hammock, eyes bleary and unfocused.

The women do most of the work, while their lazy lords drink up the chicha and swing in their hammocks, or possibly do a little hunting.

The Three Mulla-Mulgars and The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit and The Book of Three, Elidor and The Moon of Gomrath, Five Children and It, and Half Magic and Over Sea, Under Stone -- the kind of book that could distill an entire summer into a few hundred pages, the kind of book that can still summon up memories of hammocks and peach ice cream and the scent of lilacs, even if you actually first read them in a damp attic room smelling of wet sheetrock and ant traps.

He swung off the hammock and reached for his dressing gown, but Jama twitched the silk garment off the chair back.

Then the child was firmly gestured toward her hammock, and Keo without orders tumbled onto a bunk.

It became clear that this had an additional benefit when Bowyer invited Kydd to climb into his hammock for the first time.

With fatigue closing in on him in waves, Kydd stumbled over to his hammock.

When the day dawned our hearts were gladdened because Lisbon was no longer in sight, and as we were in need of rest I laid down on a seat, while the count got into a hammock, neither of us troubling to undress.

The productions of the country are cacao, sarsaparilla, Brazil nuts, bast for caulking vessels, copaiba balsam, India-rubber, salt fish, turtle-oil, manati, grass hammocks, and tiles.

The youngsters sling their hammocks by the breadroom, and they used to mess with the gunner until he took so poorly.

A tiny swell of breast, ribs I could count, one, two, three, four, five, and the smooth concavity of my stomach, slung like a hammock between the uprights of my hipbones.

I perceived that I was hungry, and prepared to clamber out of the hammock, which, very politely anticipating my intention, twisted round and deposited me upon all-fours on the floor.