hamburger

Etymology

Shortening of Hamburger sandwich, Hamburger steak, etc.; or, less likely, borrowed from German Hamburger (“native of Hamburg”), equivalent to Hamburg + -er.

noun

1. A hot sandwich consisting of a patty of cooked ground beef or a meat substitute, in a sliced bun, sometimes also containing salad vegetables, condiments, or both.
2. The patty used in such a sandwich.
3. (uncountable) Ground beef, especially that intended to be made into hamburgers.
4. (US, colloquial, somewhat crude) An animal or human, or the flesh thereof, that has been badly injured as a result of an accident or conflict.
   The truck hit the deer and turned it into hamburger.
   I'm going to make you into hamburger if you do that again.
5. (graphical user interface) Short for hamburger button.
6. (US, education, informal) Describing the shape of a rectangular piece of paper folded in half so that it forms a short rectangle.
   Coordinate term: hot dog

verb

1. To badly injure or damage.
   The men played baseball on coral diamonds that tore their shoes and clothes and hamburgered their hands. 1944, C. G. Morris, Hugh B. Cave, “The Fightin’est Ship”: The Story of the Cruiser “Helena”, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, page 62
   And his tires triggered no Claymore mines or Bouncing Betties that might have hamburgered his vehicle with him in it. 1981, John Nichols, The Nirvana Blues, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, page 283
   My tears are like gagged pieces of ice cutting up my eyeballs and hamburgering my face. 1994, Beatrice Sparks (falsely indicated as editor), It Happened to Nancy: By an Anonymous Teenager, a True Story from Her Diary, Avon Books, published 2005, page 133
   It’s a trail that has taken more than its fair share of blood, my first flat tire, and hamburgered my entire forearm on a descent. 2014, Shannon Galpin, Mountain to Mountain: A Journey of Adventure and Activism for the Women of Afghanistan, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, page 47
   Ken broke three fingers and hamburgered his legs, but he still got to his feet, chased down his burro, and continued on to the finish line. 2019, Christopher McDougall, Running with Sherman: The Donkey with the Heart of a Hero, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, page 51
   Why they didn’t both break their necks or get hamburgered by cloven hooves was a mystery. 2020, Lynn Stansbury, Crossing the Divide, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse