clem

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“
Anyway, I seen there was likely to be a big clem--that's what we say for 'fight' in the show business--and I didn't get far from the lions--no, ma'am Were you afraid some of the bad men might hurt your lions, sir?"

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Definitions (6)

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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

  1. To pinch; compress; stop up by pressure; clog.
  2. To pinch with hunger; starve. My entrails Were clemm'd with keeping a perpetual fast. Massinger, The Roman Actor, ii. 1. What! will he clem me and my followers? B. Jonson, Poetaster, i. 2.
  3. To die of hunger; starve. Hard is the choice when the valiant must eat their armes or clem. B. Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour, iii. 6. [In all senses prov. Eng.]
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Examples (50)

  • Am ryw rheswm, dim clem pam, mae 'na llawer iawn ar gael yn Asia …. —  Blogiadur.com
  • (3 / 07 / 2009 1: 05 PM) hey, what about Papa clem ...
  • Anyway, I seen there was likely to be a big clem--that's what we say for 'fight' in the show business--and I didn't get far from the lions--no, ma'am Were you afraid some of the bad men might hurt your lions, sir?" —  The Corner House Girls at School
  • "Work or clem," that were what Tom allays tould me th' ould bell were sayin'. —  The Atlantic Book of Modern Plays
  • "[1] In a time of prosperity, working-people feast, and in a time of adversity they "clem." —  Thrift
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English *clemmen, from Anglo-Saxon *clemman (only in comp. be-clemman, fasten, confine) = Old Saxon *klemmian (in comp. bi-klemmian, fasten, confine, ant-klemmian, press upon, urge) = Middle Dutch, Dutch klemmen, pinch, clench, oppress, = Middle Low German Low German klemmen, pinch, compress, = Old High German *chlemman (in comp. bi-chlemman), Middle High German G. klemmen, pinch, cramp, squeeze, jam, = Danish klemme, pinch, squeeze, jam, = Norwegian klemma, klæma, klemba (also klæmra, klembra = Icelandic klembra, squeeze, clamp) = Swedish klämma, pinch, squeeze. In later use taken as equivalent to clam, v., as a denominative of clam, n., but properly a factitive verb, with reg. vowel-change, from the preterit *klam of an assumed verb, Teutonic (Gothic (Moesogothic)) *kliman, Anglo-Saxon *climman, press or adhere together, stick; mixed with clam, and also with clem = cleam: see clam, clam, clem = cleam.
  2. Var. of clam, a., q. v.
 

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