Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A person's leg.
- noun A social visit or friendly interchange, especially between whalers or seafarers.
- noun A herd of whales or a social congregation of whalers, especially at sea.
- intransitive verb To hold a visit, especially while at sea.
- intransitive verb To visit with.
- intransitive verb To spend (time) talking or visiting.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To herd together or form a school, as whales; crowd together and swim in the same direction.
- To make a call, exchange visits, have a chat, etc., as fishermen or fishing-vessels.
- noun A herd or school of whales.
- noun Hence A social visit between fishermen; a chat, call, or other exchange of courtesies, as when vessels meet and speak each other, exchange visits, give and take letters aboard, etc.
- noun A tusk or large tooth.
- noun A leg.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Naut.) A herd, or school, of whales.
- noun A visit between whalers at sea; a holding of social intercourse between those on different vessels at sea, or (Local U. S.) between persons ashore.
- noun A visit between whalers at sea; a holding of social intercourse between those on different vessels at sea, or (Local U. S.) between persons ashore.
- noun slang a leg.
- transitive verb (Naut.) To have a gam with; to pay a visit to, esp. among whalers at sea.
- intransitive verb To gather in a gam; -- said of whales.
- intransitive verb To engage in a gam, or (Local, U. S.) in social intercourse anywhere.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun slang A person's
leg . - noun A collective noun used to refer to a group of whales; a
pod . - noun by extension A
social gathering ofwhalers or otherships . - verb nautical To make a social
visit on another ship at sea. - noun Ireland Alternative spelling of
gom . A silly, foolish person.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a herd of whales
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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There figure to be plenty of points scored when the Vikings and Saints meet there in the NFC title gam
azcentral.com | news 2010
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The Lady Bruins were ready to take control of Thursday's title gam in the third quarter, limiting Rio Americano to seven points while pulling away for a 39-30 lead after three.
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m and become ha, and cum becomes co - in Latin; gam has become gma by metathesis; and gtan has passed into - tan by phonetic corruption.
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The vertices will contain traceless terms gam* (tW) which will contribute to a quadratic term in t which has a trace.
Dark Matter and Fifth Forces Sean 2008
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Now, a gam is the meeting of two or more whale-ships, their keeping company for a time, and the exchanging of visits by the crews.
Fighting the Whales 1859
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Now, a gam is the meeting of two or more whale-ships, their keeping company for a time, and the exchanging of visits by the crews.
Fighting the Whales 1859
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Sabres: Washington is outclassed by short-handed Buffalo to extend Virginia Tech football pounds rival Virginia, 38-0, earns berth in ACC title gam mesothelioma cancer shatters lives.
The Washington Post: National, World & D.C. Area News and Headlines - The Washington Post Matt Terl 2011
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"One thing I tell them is the idea of gam zeh ya'avor, that a time will come when things get better," said Rabbi Goldberger.
unknown title 2009
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"One thing I tell them is the idea of gam zeh ya'avor, that a time will come when things get better," said Rabbi Goldberger.
unknown title 2009
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It took me a minute, but I think I've deciphered Hi's comment: for "gam" read "Guam."
yarb commented on the word gam
This visiting between the crews of ships at sea is called, among whalemen, "gamming."
- Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, ch. 25
September 9, 2008
knitandpurl commented on the word gam
I like that this word is both "a school of whales" and "a visit between whalers."
The latter:
"We met another ship, the Gallopan out of New Bedford, and so embarked upon a gam—a meeting of ships, a bit of fun—and that was my first and best gam, and went on for three or four days till I began to think that we were out here on this ocean for no other reason than to drink rum, eat Wilson Pride's salty pork dumplings and play cards of an evening."
Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch, p 91 of the Doubleday hardcover edition
January 11, 2012
rolig commented on the word gam
A curious choice as a collective for an order of gamless mammals!
January 11, 2012