clem
English edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
Inherited from Middle English *clemmen, *clammen, from Old English clemman, clæmman (“to press, surround”), from Proto-West Germanic *klammjan (“to squeeze”).
Cognate with Dutch klemmen (“to jam, pinch, stick”), German klemmen (“to jam, clamp; to be stuck, stick [to a surface]”).
Alternative forms edit
Verb edit
clem (third-person singular simple present clems, present participle clemming, simple past and past participle clemmed)
- (UK, dialect, transitive or intransitive) To be hungry; starve.
- 1889, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, Between Two Loves, Ch. VI, p. 110:
- " […] Here he's back home again, and without work, and without a penny, and thou knows t' little one and I were pretty well clemmed to death when thou got us a bit o' bread and meat last night. We were that!"
References edit
Etymology 2 edit
Possibly from clementine, a small round citrus fruit.
Noun edit
clem (plural clems)
References edit
- “clem”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Etymology 3 edit
Verb edit
clem (third-person singular simple present clems, present participle clemming, simple past and past participle clemmed)
- Alternative form of clam (“to adhere”)