clam

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various usually burrowing marine and freshwater bivalve mollusks of the class Pelecypoda, including members of the genera Venus and Mya, many of which are edible.
2. n. The soft edible body of such a mollusk.
3. n. Informal A close-mouthed person, especially one who can keep a secret.
4. n. Slang A dollar: set me back 75 clams.
5. v. To hunt for clams.
6. clam up Informal To refuse to talk.
7. n. A clamp or vise.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A clamp (see clamp); in plural, forceps, pincers. Specifically— A clamp or vise of wood used by carpenters, etc.
2. n. A stick laid across a stream of water to serve as a bridge.
3. n. A rat-trap.
4. To press together; compress; pinch.
5. To clog up; close by pressure; shut.
6. To castrate, as a bull or ram, by compression.
7. To rumple; crease.
8. To snatch.
9. To pinch with hunger; emaciate; starve.
10. To stick close.
11. To grope or grasp ineffectually.
12. To die of hunger; starve.
13. Sticky; viscous; clammy (which see).
14. Moist; thawing, as ice.
15. Vile; mean; unworthy.
16. To smear; daub; clog with glutinous or viscous matter.
17. To stick; glue.
18. To be glutinous; be cold and moist; be clammy.
19. n. Clamminess; the state or quality of having or conveying a cold moist feeling.
20. n. A name given in different localities to different bivalve mollusks. Thus, in England, about the mouth of the river Helford, it is given to the piddock, Pholas dactylus; in New York and neighboring States, to Venus mercenaria, Mya arenaria being known as the soft clam, or long clam; in Massachusetts, to Mya arenaria, Venus mercenaria being designated as the hard clam or round clam; in many parts of the interior United States, to any species of Unionidæ or mussels; along the Pacific coast of the United States, to species of Tapes and Saxidomus; and, with qualifying prefixes, to various other species. The giant clam is Tridacna gigas; the thorny clam is Chama lazarus, etc.
21. n. A ringing of all the bells of a chime simultaneously; a clamor; a clangor.
22. To sound all the bells in a chime simultaneously.
23. See extract.
24. n. Same as clamp, n., 1.
25. n. An obsolete variant of clamb, old preterit of climb.
26. To gather clams; as, to go clamming.

Wiktionary

1. n. A bivalve mollusk of many kinds, especially those that are edible; as, the long clam (Mya arenaria), the quahog or round clam (Venus mercenaria), the sea clam or hen clam (Spisula solidissima), and other species of the United States. The name is said to have been given originally to the Tridacna gigas, a huge East Indian bivalve.
2. n. Strong pincers or forceps.
3. n. A kind of vise, usually of wood.
4. n. US, slang A dollar (usually used in the plural). Possibly originating from the term wampum.
5. n. slang, derogatory A Scientologist.
6. v. To dig for clams.
7. v. To produce, in bellringing, a clam or clangor; to cause to clang.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) A bivalve mollusk of many kinds, especially those that are edible. The name is said to have been given originally to the Tridacna gigas, a huge East Indian bivalve.
2. n. (Ship Carp.) Strong pinchers or forceps.
3. n. (Mech.) A kind of vise, usually of wood.
4. v. To clog, as with glutinous or viscous matter.
5. v. rare To be moist or glutinous; to stick; to adhere.
6. n. rare Claminess; moisture.
7. n. A crash or clangor made by ringing all the bells of a chime at once.
8. v. To produce, in bell ringing, a clam or clangor; to cause to clang.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a piece of paper money worth one dollar
2. v. gather clams, by digging in the sand by the ocean
3. n. flesh of either hard-shell or soft-shell clams
4. n. burrowing marine mollusk living on sand or mud; the shell closes with viselike firmness