hamstring

From ham (“region back of the knee joint”) +‎ string.

• IPA^(key): /ˈhæmstɹɪŋ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æmstɹɪŋ

hamstring (plural hamstrings)

1. (anatomy) One of the great tendons situated in each side of the ham, or space back of the knee, and connected with the muscles of the back of the thigh.
2. (informal) The biceps femoris, semimembranosus, and semitendinosus muscles.

   Synonyms: hams, hammy, hammie

   • 2010, Adam Garett, “Fried Hams”, in Reps!, 17:23:

     Developing muscle around both sides of a joint (think biceps and triceps, abs and low back, quads and hamstrings) should be one of your primary training considerations because strength on each side leads to lower injury rates.

hamstring (third-person singular simple present hamstrings, present participle hamstringing, simple past and past participle hamstrung or hamstringed)

1. (transitive) To lame or disable by cutting the tendons of the ham or knee; to hough.

   Synonyms: hock, hough, hox

2. (transitive, figurative) To cripple; to incapacitate; to disable. [from 1640s]

   Synonyms: cripple, incapacitate, disable

   • 1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have Hindred it; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916, →OCLC:

     So have they hamstrung the valor of the subject by seeking to effeminate us all at home.

   • 2017 July 17, Martin Lukacs, “Neoliberalism has conned us into fighting climate change as individuals”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Its trademark policies of privatization, deregulation, tax cuts and free trade deals: these have liberated corporations to accumulate enormous profits and treat the atmosphere like a sewage dump, and hamstrung our ability, through the instrument of the state, to plan for our collective welfare.

• See Thesaurus:disable

• Stringham

hamstra +‎ -ing

hamstring c

1. hoarding, the act of gathering or hoarding consumables in anticipation of a shortage (like a hamster hides food in its cheeks)

• hamster
• hamstrare
• hamstringsvåg

• hamstring in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)