ream

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“
And he'll ream, ream, ream your ring of fire your ring of fire.

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Definitions (26)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun A quantity of paper, formerly 480 sheets, now 500 sheets or, in a printer's ream, 516 sheets.
  2. noun A very large amount. Often used in the plural: reams of work to do.
  3. transitive verb To form, shape, taper, or enlarge (a hole or bore, for example) with or as if with a reamer.
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Examples (50)

  • Ripping off the wrapping, Joanna found an eight-and-a-half-by-eleven-inch-sized box that was about as thick as a ream of paper. —  Paradise Lost
  • I think I will invest in a ream or two of paper and print out my important files of correspondence and. doc files of my dad's unpublished memoirs. —  GenealogyBlog
  • Feel free to ream me out or point out potential other areas of discussion. —  Royals Review
  • The ocean looked like a ream of sequined cloth under the bright sky as we drove close to the cliff edge. —  Travel news, travel guides and reviews | guardian.co.uk
  • Not only did he work on this brilliant project but he also scored a number one chart hit with 'Things can only get better' written and perfomed by D: ream, and toured with Jimmy Page. —  Irish Blogs
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Used in the same contextWord Family

ream:   reams
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (6)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English reme, from Old French reime, from Old Spanish resma, from Arabic rizma, bundle, from razama, to bundle; see rzm in Semitic roots.
  2. Possibly from Middle English remen, to make room, variant of rimen, from Old English rȳman; see reuə- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. Also reem, raim; from Middle English rem, reme, from Anglo-Saxon reám =D. room =Middle Low German rōm, Low German rom =Middle High German roum, German raum, rahm =Icelandic rjómi, cream; origin unknown.
  2. from ream, n.
  3. Also reem., dial. rim, rime; from Middle English remen, rimen, rumen, from Anglo-Saxon ry¯man, widen, extend, spread, enlarge, etc. (=Old Saxon rumian =OFries. rēma =Middle Dutch, Dutch ruimen =Middle Low German rūmen =Old High German rūmian, rūman, Middle High German rūmen, yield, give way, make room, retire, relax, German räumen, make room, etc, =Icelandic ry¯ma, make room, clear, quit, =Swedish rymma =Danish römme, quit), from rūm, wide, roomy: see room.
  4. Early modern English reme; from late Middle English reeme =D. riem, from Old French rayme, raime, rame, French rame (Middle Latin reflex rama) =Italian risma, formerly also risima, from Spanish Portuguese resma (Middle Latin risma) (cf. late Middle High German ris, riz, rist, German ries, riess =Dan, Swedish ris, with loss of final syllable), from Arabic rizma (plural rizam), a bundle, especially of clothes, also of paper. The word was brought into Europe by the Moors, who introduced the manufacture of cotton paper into Spain.
 

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