Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To leave a scene at once; go abruptly.
- v. To shut down automatically. Used of a nuclear reactor.
- n. A rapid shutting down of a nuclear reactor, especially in an emergency.
Wiktionary
- v. Get out of here; go away (frequently imperative).
- v. transitive, intransitive To abruptly insert the control rods of a nuclear reactor, usually in case of emergency shutdown.
- n. A rapid shutdown of a nuclear reactor
- n. alternative spelling of SCRAM.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. informal to leave; to go away; used mostly as an impolite command to a person to go away from a specific location.
- v. to shut down (a nuclear reactor) quickly, as in an emergency.
- n. the rapid shut down of a nuclear reactor, as in an emergency.
WordNet 3.0
- v. leave immediately; used usually in the imperative form
Etymologies
- Back-formation from SCRAM, most etymology are likely backronyms. (Wiktionary)
- Perhaps short for scramble. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“O'BRIEN: NASA set a speed record on Saturday with the launch of the unmanned test aircraft called a scram jet.”
“Electrical problems yesterday grounded the so-called scram jet.”
“I didn't hear what she said, so didn't respond, but the person-of-few-words who worked the booth with me said, simply, "scram" and she hustled away.”
“She pulled a switchblade on me, said if I didn't scram she was going to cut me seven ways to Sunday.”
“What the people in these countries want is substantial change -- namely freedom and the heads of the regimes to pack their bags and scram.”
The Huffington Post: Dan Dorfman: Risky Roadmap to $7 a Gallon Gas
“I know 2 grad students who lost their TAs and 4 postdocs who were given Dec deadlines to scram.”
““No, you mook—you grab as many electric toothbrushes as you can, then we scram—got it?””
“Transformer damage caused the reactor to "scram" or automatically trip out of service Saturday night.”
The Wall Street Journal: Irene Knocks Out Power to More Than Five Million
“This kind of scram is stressful on the reactor," said Robert Albrecht , a University of Washington professor emeritus of electrical engineering, who has a background in nuclear engineering.”
“You put together a nifty consortium of BigWigs – NRC, Electric Power Research Institute, Department of Energy – to simply re-write the laws of physics and claim that some of the control rods are only there to "shape" the reaction, and don't have to fall to shut off the fission during a scram.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘scram’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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old timey talk
Words or Sayings from the 1920's or whatever that no one really uses anymore (at least in that context).
scram, bearcat, heavens to betsy, dick, double-cross, ducky, gams, goofy, hooch, jalopy, john, joe and 174 more...
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Git!
Shoo! Scram! Go on now! Nothing to see! Move it!
shoo, scram, get going, move it, move along, go on now, nothing to see, scat, skedaddle, vamoose, beat it, make tracks and 37 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
grabbable, retuiteando, leaving, fantastic, absolutely, kurwa, hella, ridic, underpass, hate, interlude, plush and 2369 more... -
Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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edes's Words
table talk, tuneful, bestrewn, determinate fashion, unpretending, personage, duly impressed, shirring, caw, hatchet job, gummy, comely and 225 more...
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Slang words of Irish origin according...
Compare the etymologies of these words as given in the OED with the Gaelic backgrounders in this book, How the Irish Invented Slang: The Secret Language of the Crossroads (Counterpunch, 2007). Awai...
smack, snazzy, pussy, geek, dork, dude, smudge, snap, slugger, slum, scam, slew and 102 more...
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Tuesday words
just the next words that come along
nasality, transignification, lapsarian, disciple, slanguage, atwitter, avast, ahoy, asleep, awake, hymnody, glissade and 573 more...
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DYSLEXIC'S DREAD
Words That Make Sense in Reverse Too! Bad news for a dyslexic, 'cause s/he's got no clue if s/he read the word correctly or not, as opposed to a palindrome (i.e., no mistake possible, cf. "Dyslexic...
tool, lever, nap, pool, leer, leek, desserts, strop, doom, ukiah, yaws, ward and 213 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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Words suggested in response to Funk's...
In response to Wilfred J. Funk's "ten most beautiful words in the English language" list of 1932.
beer, rum, rye, sauterne, sherry, brandy, bourbon, Scotch, champagne, cocktail, lyric, serenity and 137 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for scram.
oroboros Marcs in reverse. Marc is winemaking residue that can be used for distillation. Nov 2, 2007