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clam

See also: CLAM

Contents

EnglishEdit

 
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littleneck clams, of the species Mercenaria mercenaria

PronunciationEdit

Etymology 1Edit

From Middle English clam (“pincers, vice, clamp”), from Old English clamm (“bond, fetter, grip, grasp”), from Proto-Germanic *klam (“press, squeeze together”). The sense “dollar” may allude to wampum.

NounEdit

clam (plural clams)

  1. A bivalve mollusk of many kinds, especially those that are edible; for example the soft-shell clam (Mya arenaria), the hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria), the sea clam or hen clam (Spisula solidissima), and other species. The name is said to have been given originally to the Tridacna gigas, a huge East Indian bivalve.
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 3, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.
  2. Strong pincers or forceps.
  3. A kind of vise, usually of wood.
  4. (US, slang) A dollar (usually used in the plural).
    Those sneakers cost me fifty clams!
  5. (slang, derogatory) A Scientologist.
    • 1998 February 23, jesparolini, “CO$ Celebrities: USEFUL IDIOTS”, in alt.religion.scientology, Usenet‎[1]:
      So the clams have John Travolta, Tom Cruise, et al in their hot li'l ol'P-R hands […]
  6. (slang) A vagina.
    • Tom Dalzell, Terry Victor (accessed 11-01-2017), “The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English”, in (Please provide the title of the work)‎[2]: “clam noun 1. the vagina”
  7. (informal) One who clams up; a taciturn person, one who refuses to speak.
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
mollusc — See also translations at mollusc,‎ oyster,‎ mussel

VerbEdit

clam (third-person singular simple present clams, present participle clamming, simple past and past participle clammed)

  1. To dig for clams.
TranslationsEdit

See alsoEdit

Etymology 2Edit

NounEdit

clam (plural clams)

  1. A crash or clangor made by ringing all the bells of a chime at once.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Nares to this entry?)

VerbEdit

clam (third-person singular simple present clams, present participle clamming, simple past and past participle clammed)

  1. To produce, in bellringing, a clam or clangor; to cause to clang.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Nares to this entry?)

Etymology 3Edit

From Middle English clammen (“to smear, bedaub”), from Old English clǣman (“to smear, bedaub”). Cognate with German klamm (“clammy”). See also clammy (“damp, cold and sticky”) and clem (“to adhere, stick, plug (a hole)”).

AdjectiveEdit

clam (comparative clammer, superlative clammest)

  1. (obsolete) clammy.

NounEdit

clam

  1. clamminess; moisture
    • Carlyle
      The clam of death.

VerbEdit

clam (third-person singular simple present clams, present participle clamming, simple past and past participle clammed)

  1. To be moist or glutinous; to stick; to adhere.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)
  2. To clog, as with glutinous or viscous matter.
    • L'Estrange
      A swarm of wasps got into a honey pot, and there they cloyed and clammed themselves till there was no getting out again.

Etymology 4Edit

NounEdit

clam (plural clams)

  1. (rowing) Alternative form of CLAM

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for clam in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

AnagramsEdit

CatalanEdit

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

clam m (plural clams)

  1. clamor

SynonymsEdit

LatinEdit

FWOTD – 7 April 2015

EtymologyEdit

From Proto-Indo-European *ḱl-, zero-grade form of *ḱel- (“to hide, conceal”). Cognate to Latin cēlō.

PronunciationEdit

AdverbEdit

clam (not comparable)

  1. clandestinely, secretly, privately
  2. stealthily

PrepositionEdit

clam

  1. (with accusative or, rarely, ablative) without the knowledge of, unknown to
    • 163 B.C.E. Terence, Heauton Timorumenos, Act II, Scene II:
      Neque adeo clam me est.
      Nor indeed is it unknown to me.

Derived termsEdit

Related termsEdit

ReferencesEdit

Old EnglishEdit

Alternative formsEdit

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

clām m

  1. mud

DeclensionEdit

Declension of clam (strong a-stem)
Case Singular Plural
nominative clām clāmas
accusative clām clāmas
genitive clāmes clāma
dative clāme clāmum
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