Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
adj
Fake, pretend; bullshit.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Papua-New-Guinea
Qualifier: Australian Aboriginal; chiefly Queensland; Northern Territory; Australian Aboriginal; chiefly Queensland; Northern Territory
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
the Shelta or Cant language of the Irish Travelling Community.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Ireland
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A cut of quick-cured pork leg.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A joke, trick; play, sport, merriment.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, dialectal, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A victory in backgammon achieved when the opponent has not borne off a single stone.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Topics: backgammon, games
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Backgammon (the game itself).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, rare, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A rope fastening a bowsprit to the stem of a ship (usually called a gammoning).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: nautical, transport
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Chatter, ridiculous nonsense.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dated, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: gammon and pickles
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A middle-aged or older right-wing, reactionary white man, or such men collectively.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, countable, derogatory, neologism, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To cure bacon by salting.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To joke, kid around, play.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dialectal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To beat by a gammon (without the opponent bearing off a stone).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: backgammon, games
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To lash with ropes (on a ship).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To deceive; to lie plausibly to.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: colloquial, dated, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
hind portion of a side of bacon
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: bacon
noun
meat cut from the thigh of a hog (usually smoked)
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: ham, jambon
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: cut of pork
Narrower terms: Virginia ham, prosciutto
History
Perhaps a special use of the word from etymology 2.
From Middle English *gammon, gambon, from Old French gambon (compare modern French jambon (“ham”)), from gambe (“leg”), from Late Latin gamba, from Ancient Greek καμπή (kampḗ). Doublet of jambon and jamon.
From Middle English gamenen, gamene, from Old English gamnian, gæmnian, gamenian (“to joke, play”), from Proto-West Germanic *gamanōn, from Proto-Germanic *gamanōną (“to play, have fun, joke”). Cognate with Middle High German gamenen (“to mock, make fun of”), Icelandic gamna (“to have fun”). More at game.
Perhaps related to the first etymology, with reference to tying up a ham.
Gained popularity in 2017 (in the phrase "Great Wall of Gammon", likening the referents' rosy complexions to gammon (“ham, bacon”)), although the metaphor was in use earlier: the BBC points to a 2016 use of “gammon face”.
Across languages
20 source translations are retained for this English entry.
