dam

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A female parent of an animal, especially a domesticated mammal such as a horse.
• noun Archaic A mother.
• abbreviation decameter
• noun A barrier constructed across a waterway to control the flow or raise the level of water.
• noun A body of water controlled by such a barrier.
• noun A barrier against the passage of liquid or loose material, as a rubber sheet used in dentistry to isolate one or more teeth from the rest of the mouth.
• transitive verb To hold back or confine by means of a dam.
• transitive verb To close up; obstruct.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A crowned man in the game of draughts or checkers.
• noun A fire-brick wall forming the front of the hearth or crucible of a blast-furnace, through which the tap-hole is formed.
• To obstruct or restrain the flow of by a dam; confine or raise the level of by constructing a dam, as a stream of water: often with in, up.
• To confine or restrain as if with a dam; stop or shut up or in; obstruct: with up.
• noun A mole, bank, or mound of earth, or a wall, or a frame of wood, constructed across a stream of water to obstruct its flow and thus raise its level, in order to make it available as a motive power, as for driving a mill-wheel; such an obstruction built for any purpose, as to form a reservoir, to protect a tract of land from overflow, etc.; in law, an artificial boundary or means of confinement of running water, or of water which would otherwise flow away.
• noun In mining, any underground wall or stopping, constructed of masonry, clay, or timber, for the purpose of holding back water, air, or gas.
• noun In dentistry, a guard of soft rubber placed round a tooth to keep it free from saliva while being prepared for filling.
• noun The body of water confined by a dam.
• noun A female parent: used of beasts, particularly of quadrupeds, and sometimes (now usually in a slighting sense) of women.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A female parent; -- used of beasts, especially of quadrupeds; sometimes applied in contempt to a human mother.
• noun A king or crowned piece in the game of draughts.
• transitive verb To obstruct or restrain the flow of, by a dam; to confine by constructing a dam, as a stream of water; -- generally used with in or up.
• transitive verb To shut up; to stop up; to close; to restrain.
• transitive verb to keep out by means of a dam.
• noun A barrier to prevent the flow of a liquid; esp., a bank of earth, or wall of any kind, as of masonry or wood, built across a water course, to confine and keep back flowing water.
• noun (Metal.) A firebrick wall, or a stone, which forms the front of the hearth of a blast furnace.
• noun (Blast Furnace) an iron plate in front of the dam, to strengthen it.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun Female parent, mother, generally regarding breeding of animals (correlative to sire).
• noun metrology Symbol for the decameter (decametre), an SI unit of length equal to 101 meters (metres).
• noun Structure placed across a flowing body of water to stop the flow.
• noun dentistry A device to prevent a tooth from getting wet, consisting of a rubber sheet held with a band.
• noun South Africa A reservoir.
• verb To block the flow of water.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a barrier constructed to contain the flow of water or to keep out the sea
• verb obstruct with, or as if with, a dam
• noun a metric unit of length equal to ten meters
• noun female parent of an animal especially domestic livestock