Clam meaning

klăm
A close-mouthed person, especially one who can keep a secret.
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To hunt for clams.
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Any of various hard-shell, usually edible, bivalve mollusks, some of which live in the shallows of the sea, others in fresh water.
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The soft, edible part of such a mollusk.
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A reticent or taciturn person.
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To dig, or go digging, for clams.
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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.
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Strong pincers or forceps.
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A kind of vise, usually of wood.
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(US, slang) A dollar (usually used in the plural). Possibly originating from the term wampum.

Those sneakers cost me fifty clams!

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(slang, derogatory) A Scientologist.
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To dig for clams.
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A crash or clangor made by ringing all the bells of a chime at once.

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To produce, in bellringing, a clam or clangor; to cause to clang.

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To be moist or glutinous; to stick; to adhere.

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To clog, as with glutinous or viscous matter.
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To clam is to go digging for clams.

An example of clam is to dig for clams at low tide.

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The definition of a clam is an animal that lives in shallow water with a hard shell and no backbone, or is slang for a U.S. dollar.

An example of a clam is one of the main ingredients in the fish stew called cioppino.

An example of a clam is $1.

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A dollar.

Owed them 75 clams.

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A clamp or vise.
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clam up
  • To keep silent or refuse to talk.
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Idioms and Phrasal Verbs

Origin of clam

  • From obsolete clam-shell shell that clamps, clam from clam
    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
  • Middle English from Old English clam, clamm bond, fetter
    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
  • From Middle English clam (“pincers, vice, clamp”), from Old English clamm (“bond, fetter, grip, grasp”).
    From Wiktionary

Clam Sentence Examples

  • Its principal industry is the canning of sardines; there are also clam canneries.

  • The valves of the giant clam (Tridachna) sometimes attain a length of 5 ft.

  • Reichenberg is first mentioned in a document of 1348, and from 1622 to 1634 was among the possessions of the great Wallenstein, since whose death it has belonged to the Gallas and Clam Gallas families, though their jurisdiction over the town has long ceased.

  • clam shells, then drop them down at night.

  • Dark wampum, which was made from a "hard shell" clam (Venus mercenaria), popularly called quahang or quahog, a corruption of the Indian name, was the most valuable.

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Words near clam in the Dictionary