clam up

English

Alternative forms

• (idiomatic) shut up like a clam

Etymology

By analogy with a clam closing itself. Compare clamshell (“mouth”), clam (“mouth”).

Pronunciation

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Verb

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

1. (intransitive, informal) To become silent; to stop talking, to shut up.
   • 1986, Paul Chadwick, Concrete: Under the Desert Stars, Dark Horse Books:

     Maybe he … or she … was a witness who refused to clam up … a whistle blower …

2. (transitive, intransitive) To make or become clammy.

Synonyms

• shut up

Antonyms

• talk

Translations

become silent

• Breton: tevel (br)
• Dutch: zwijgen (nl), zijn mond houden
• Esperanto: silenti
• Finnish: hiljetä (fi)
• French: (colloquial) la fermer (fr), (colloquial) fermer son clapet (fr), (vulgar) fermer son claque-merde (fr), (informal) la boucler (fr)
• German: schweigen (de)
• Greek: σωπαίνω (el) (sopaíno)
• Italian: tacere (it)
• Japanese: 黙ってしまう (だまってしまう, damatte shimau)
• Kazakh: үндемеу (ündemeu)
• Limburgish: zwiege (li)
• Maore Comorian: uɓuriha
• Maori: whakangūngū
• Northern Sami: jaskkodit, jávohuvvat
• Portuguese: fechar-se
• Russian: замолка́ть (ru) impf (zamolkátʹ), замолча́ть (ru) pf (zamolčátʹ)
• Spanish: callarse (es)
• Swedish: tiga (sv)
• Záparo: yánunu