Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A clamp or vise.
- noun Any of various usually burrowing marine and freshwater bivalve mollusks chiefly of the subclass Heterodonta, including members of the families Veneridae and Myidae, many of which are edible.
- noun The soft edible body of such a mollusk.
- noun Informal A close-mouthed person, especially one who can keep a secret.
- noun Slang A dollar.
- intransitive verb To hunt for clams.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A clamp (see
clamp ); in plural, forceps, pincers. - noun A stick laid across a stream of water to serve as a bridge.
- noun A rat-trap.
- noun Clamminess; the state or quality of having or conveying a cold moist feeling.
- To smear; daub; clog with glutinous or viscous matter.
- To stick; glue.
- To be glutinous; be cold and moist; be clammy.
- To press together; compress; pinch.
- To clog up; close by pressure; shut.
- To castrate, as a bull or ram, by compression.
- To rumple; crease.
- To snatch.
- To pinch with hunger; emaciate; starve.
- To stick close.
- To grope or grasp ineffectually.
- To die of hunger; starve.
- noun A ringing of all the bells of a chime simultaneously; a clamor; a clangor.
- To sound all the bells in a chime simultaneously.
- See extract.
- noun A name given in different localities to different bivalve mollusks.
- noun Same as
clamp , n., 1. - Sticky; viscous; clammy (which see).
- Moist; thawing, as ice.
- Vile; mean; unworthy.
- To gather clams; as, to go clamming.
- noun An obsolete variant of
clamb , old preterit ofclimb .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb rare To be moist or glutinous; to stick; to adhere.
- noun rare Claminess; moisture.
- noun A crash or clangor made by ringing all the bells of a chime at once.
- verb To produce, in bell ringing, a clam or clangor; to cause to clang.
- transitive verb To clog, as with glutinous or viscous matter.
- noun (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. - noun (Ship Carp.) Strong pinchers or forceps.
- noun (Mech.) A kind of vise, usually of wood.
- noun See under
Blood .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To produce, in
bellringing , a clam orclangor ; to cause toclang . - noun A
bivalve mollusk of many kinds, especially those that are edible; as, the long clam (Mya arenaria), thequahog or round clam (Venus mercenaria ), thesea 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. - noun Strong
pincers orforceps . - noun A kind of
vise , usually of wood. - noun US, slang A
dollar (usually used in the plural). Possibly originating from the termwampum . - noun slang, derogatory A
Scientologist . - verb To
dig forclams .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Technology bloggers have posted photos of what they clam is the next version of Apple's iPhone, and if the images are real, the device will ... products | Comment | Recommend
Technology Product News: Read reviews and shop for gadgets - USATODAY.com 2010
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Technology bloggers have posted photos of what they clam is the next version of Apple's iPhone, and if the images are real, the device will ... products | Comment | Recommend
Technology Product News: Read reviews and shop for gadgets - USATODAY.com 2010
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It seems like that would be a good spot for ciscoes to spawn, and it's right on the way to the muskies wintering location in clam lake.
New Michigan State Record Great Lakes Muskie Caught in Torch Lake, Near Traverse City 2009
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Tuesday that a vessel with five of the company's long-term clam digging contractors was overdue.
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The clam is they have dramatically increased the efficiency and the resulting batteries are cheaper than disposable AAs ...
tingilinde: 2010
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It seems like that would be a good spot for ciscoes to spawn, and it's right on the way to the muskies wintering location in clam lake.
New Michigan State Record Great Lakes Muskie Caught in Torch Lake, Near Traverse City 2009
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It just takes a conscious effort to remain clam when everyone around you is hysterical, and the consideration of some other tips included in this book.
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Barack Obama has beaten Hillary Clinton in the only metric that matters — delegates — but in every other major fuzzy metric that some people clam is important: popular vote, number of states won, he generally polls better than her against McCain, and he's raised more money.
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It just takes a conscious effort to remain clam when everyone around you is hysterical, and the consideration of some other tips included in this book.
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The clam is opened and out pops Midler, in a Las Vegas version of a Hawaiian sarong, who begins singing “Oklahoma!”
Current Movie Reviews, Independent Movies - Film Threat 2007
seanahan commented on the word clam
clam?
October 7, 2007
reesetee commented on the word clam
Clam.
October 8, 2007
uselessness commented on the word clam
Clam!
October 8, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word clam
...clam...
October 9, 2007
jennarenn commented on the word clam
Clam-I-Am!
October 9, 2007
trivet commented on the word clam
scallop
October 9, 2007
mollusque commented on the word clam
It will be lost on such an intellectual clam as you.
--Mark Twain, 1871, Sketches
November 8, 2007
Prolagus commented on the word clam
In jazz music, to hit a clam = to play a wrong note (It. stecca).
...March of '76 was Thelonious Monk. There was a guy on the air doing that standard gibberish about Monk: "and Monk, playing the wrong notes on the piano, is able to create this kind of music....". Anyway, Monk called the Columbia switchboard, and the Columbia switchboard got in touch with me and said that Thelonious Monk had called to say that we should tell the guy on the air, "The piano ain't got no wrong notes."
(A History of WKCR's Jazz Programming: An interview with Phil Schaap. Conducted, transcribed, and edited by Evan Spring. October 5th, 1992.
Source)
July 7, 2009
smrtrthnu commented on the word clam
im eating clam chowder at this very moment
August 18, 2009
whynotaskaudrey commented on the word clam
'Happy as a clam at high tide' is an American East Coast (Maine) expression - meaning is clear, just picture the wide-smiling shell...
Used by Sylvia Plath in Letters Home (December 14, 1962) - "here I am, in my favourite house in my favourite neighborhood, happy as a clam!"
March 21, 2011