name
Meaning 1
A surname from Cantonese.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
lam
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
Pronunciation
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.
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/læm/
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Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -æm
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CMU ARPABET: L AE1 M Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
A flight or escape.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: slang
Examples
- on the lam
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
The twenty-third letter of the Arabic alphabet, ل (l). It is preceded by ك (k) and followed by م (m).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
Abbreviation of light antiarmor/antiarmour missile.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, alt-of
Topics: engineering, government, military, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, politics, tools, war, weaponry
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
Abbreviation of land attack missile.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, alt-of
Topics: engineering, government, military, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, politics, tools, war, weaponry
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 6
Abbreviation of loitering attack missile.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, alt-of
Topics: engineering, government, military, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, politics, tools, war, weaponry
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 7
Acronym of lactational amenorrhea method, a method of birth control through breastfeeding.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 8
Abbreviation of lymphangioleiomyomatosis
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, alt-of
Topics: medicine, pathology, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 9
To beat or thrash.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal, transitive
Examples
- 1930, Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, Mule Bone, Act II, Scene 2, in The Collected Works of Langston Hughes, Volume 5: The Plays to 1942: Mulatto to The Sun Do Move, edited by Leslie Catherine Sanders, Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002, p. 102, An' fo' I knowed it, he done picked up that bone an' lammed me ovah de head wid it.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 10
To flee or run away.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dated, intransitive, slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 11
a rapid escape (as by criminals)
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- the thieves made a clean getaway
- after the expose he had to take it on the lam
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: getaway
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: escape, flight
verb
Meaning 12
give a thrashing to; beat hard
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: thrash, thresh, flail
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: beat, beat up, work over
verb
Meaning 13
flee; take to one's heels; cut and run
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- If you see this man, run!
- The burglars escaped before the police showed up
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: scat, run, scarper, turn tail, run away, hightail it, bunk, head for the hills, take to the woods, escape, fly the coop, break away
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: leave, go forth, go away
Narrower terms: flee, fly, take flight, skedaddle
History
Etymology
Borrowed from Cantonese 林 (lam4) or Cantonese 藍/蓝 (lam4). Doublet of Lin and Lim.
From Middle English lamen, lemen, from Old English lemian and Old Norse lemja; both from Proto-Germanic *lamjaną.
From Arabic لَام (lām), the name of the letter ل (l).
Across languages
Translations
12 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Bulgarian: бя́гство (bjágstvo) — Translations
- Czech: útěk — Translations
- Bulgarian: бия (bija) — to beat or thrash
- Bulgarian: пердаша (perdaša) — to beat or thrash
- Czech: mlátit — to beat or thrash
- Czech: zmlátit — to beat or thrash
- Czech: bít — to beat or thrash
- Czech: zbít — to beat or thrash
- Czech: třískat — to beat or thrash
- Czech: ztřískat — to beat or thrash
- Spanish: paliza — to beat or thrash
- Spanish: golpiza — to beat or thrash