Definitions

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

  • noun A thin metal plate, especially one of the overlapping steel plates in medieval armor.
  • adjective Disabled so that movement, especially walking, is difficult or impossible.
  • adjective Marked by pain or rigidness.
  • adjective Weak or ineffectual.
  • adjective Informal Dull or unsatisfactory.
  • adjective Slang Socially inappropriate; foolish.
  • transitive verb To cause to become lame; cripple.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make lame; cripple or disable; render imperfect or unsound: as, to lame an antagonist; to lame an arm or a leg.
  • noun In armor, a plate of metal.
  • Crippled or disabled by injury to or defect of a limb or limbs; specifically, walking with difficulty; halting; limping: as, a lame man or horse.
  • Inefficient from injury or defect; unsound or impaired in strength; crippled: as, a lame leg or arm.
  • Figuratively, imperfect; lacking finish or completeness; defective in quality or quantity; halting; insufficient; hobbling: as, lame verse; lame rimes; a lame excuse.
  • noun Earthenware.
  • noun A broken piece of earthenware; a potsherd.
  • Earthen: used of pottery: as, a lame pig (an earthen vessel).

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

  • transitive verb To make lame.
  • adjective Moving with pain or difficulty on account of injury, defect, or temporary obstruction of a function.
  • adjective To some degree disabled by reason of the imperfect action of a limb; crippled.
  • adjective Hence, hobbling; limping; inefficient; imperfect.
  • adjective (Stock Exchange), [Cant] Any office holder who is serving out a term after a replacement has been selected.

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

  • noun A lamina.
  • noun in the plural A set of joined, overlapping metal plates.
  • verb obsolete To shine.
  • adjective Unable to walk properly because of a problem with one's feet or legs.
  • adjective Moving with pain or difficulty on account of injury, defect or temporary obstruction of a function.
  • adjective by extension Hobbling; limping; inefficient; imperfect.
  • adjective slang Unconvincing or unbelievable.
  • adjective slang Failing to be cool, funny, interesting or relevant.
  • verb transitive to cause a person or animal to become lame

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

  • adjective disabled in the feet or legs
  • verb deprive of the use of a limb, especially a leg
  • noun someone who doesn't understand what is going on
  • noun a fabric interwoven with threads of metal
  • adjective pathetically lacking in force or effectiveness

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French, from Latin lāmina, thin plate.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English lama.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French lame, from Latin lamina.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English lama, from the Proto-Germanic *lama-, from Proto-Indo-European *lem- (“to crush; fragile”). Akin to German lahm and Dutch lam, Old Norse lami, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian lam, akin to Old Church Slavonic ломити (lomiti, "to break").

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Examples

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  • In fencing, a lame (with an accent over the e) is a protective jacket covering the target area.

    February 6, 2007

  • I can find nothing in this article that is not lame.

    May 19, 2009

  • "AUFIDIUS: I cannot help it now,

    Unless by using means, I lame the foot

    Of our design."

    - William Shakespeare, 'The Tragedy of Coriolanus'.

    August 29, 2009

  • Recursive acronym for LAME Ain't an Mp3 Encoder. However LAME has since become a great mp3 encoder.

    August 29, 2009

  • Ga, sorry the front page of Wordie was borked all day. Figures that would happen on the first day in months I wasn't online :-(

    October 18, 2009