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Clam   /klæm/   Listen
noun
Clam  n.  
1.
(Zool.) 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. "You shall scarce find any bay or shallow shore, or cove of sand, where you may not take many clampes, or lobsters, or both, at your pleasure." "Clams, or clamps, is a shellfish not much unlike a cockle; it lieth under the sand."
2.
(Ship Carp.) Strong pinchers or forceps.
3.
pl. (Mech.) A kind of vise, usually of wood.
Blood clam. See under Blood.


Clam  n.  Claminess; moisture. (R.) "The clam of death."


Clam  n.  A crash or clangor made by ringing all the bells of a chime at once.


verb
Clam  v. t. & v. i.  To produce, in bell ringing, a clam or clangor; to cause to clang.


Clam  v. t.  (past & past part. clammed; pres. part. clamming)  To clog, as with glutinous or viscous matter. "A swarm of wasps got into a honey pot, and there they cloyed and clammed Themselves till there was no getting out again."


Clam  v. i.  To be moist or glutinous; to stick; to adhere. (R.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Clam" Quotes from Famous Books



... of rhetoric looked an uneasy fear that he was being ridiculed. "I only repeated the village notion of him," he said airily. "He may have been anything. All I know is that he was as secretive as a clam, and about as ...
— Hillsboro People • Dorothy Canfield
... consisted of clam cocktails, codfish cakes and tiny pots of baked beans, hot steamed brown bread cut in small round slices, blueberry ...
— Entertaining Made Easy • Emily Rose Burt
... plenty, he may probably have to marry a poor girl, and then society will insist that he shall exert himself to earn a living for the family; but you, poor thing, will only have to open your mouth, all your life long, like a clam, and eat." (Applause and laughter). So long as society is constituted in such a way that woman is expected to do nothing if she have a father, brother, or husband able to support her, there is no salvation for her, in or out of marriage. When you tie up your arm, it will become weak and feeble; ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage
... upon Clarke and studied him in silence somewhat as a pop-eyed crab might regard a clam. "So, so," he said, softly. "You are the one who is preparing to assault the scientific world—the Clarke mentioned in the ...
— The Tyranny of the Dark • Hamlin Garland
... clam-diggers arose early and stopt for me, I tuck'd my trowser-ends in my boots and went and had a good time; You should have been with us that ...
— Leaves of Grass • Walt Whitman


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