| 释义 |
▪ I. clam, n.1|klæm|
Forms: 6–7 clamme, 9 clamb, clamm, 1, 5– clam.
[OE. clam(m, clǫm(m, corresp. to MHG. klam, Ger. klamm cramp, fetter, constriction, pinching, and, with change of gender, OHG. chlamma, MHG. klamme in same sense. Cf. also MHG., Ger. klemme, Du. klemme, klem, app. from type *klam(m)jôn-. See also clem v.
These point to an OTeut. *klam-, *klamm-, or *klamb-, to press or squeeze together. Some compare *klam- with pre-Teut. glom- in Lat. glomus. But Sievers inclines to start from klimb- in OE. climban, Ger. klimmen to climb, orig. to cleave, cling, or adhere; thence an adj. *klambo- sticky, with causal vb. *klambjan ‘to make to stick, press, compress’. This would provide a common source for the first four ns. spelt clam, and the first three spelt clamp, with the adjs. and verbs belonging to both series.]
†1. Anything that holds tight; bond, chain; pl. bonds, bondage. Obs. (In OE.)
971Blickl. Hom. 83 Þe Drihten of deaþe aras..æfter þæm clammum helle Þeostra. a1000Andreas (Gr.) 130 Þa þe on carcerne, clommum fæste..hwile wunedon. a1000Riddles xliii. 12 (Gr.) Hwylc þæs hordgates cæᵹan cræfte þa clamme onleac.
2. An instrument or mechanical device for clasping rigidly or otherwise holding fast; e.g. a clamp for holding two stones together, or any instrument of the nature of a vice or pair of pincers which holds things between its jaws. With many special technical applications in different trades and branches of industry, in some of which it varies with clamp. See the quots.
1399Fabric Rolls York Minster (Surtees) 19 Item ij soudyngirenes j par de clames et j par de tanges, precii 4d. 1496Bk. St. Alban's, Fishing 14 [Hokis] for whoos makyng ye must haue fete fyles..A semy clam of yren..a payre of longe and smalle tongys, etc. 1512Test. Ebor. V. (Surtees) 35 (in ‘The Shoppe’) A par of clamez, ijd. 1547Ludlow Churchw. Acc. (Camd. Soc.) 29 For iiij. clammes for the pascalle bordes. 1638Churchw. Acc. Kirton in Lindsey in Proc. Soc. Antiq. (1864) 14 Apr., For iiij poales for the clammes and to John Dawber for shafting them, iijs. iiijd. 1832Babbage Econ. Manuf. xix. (ed. 3) 188 Another pair of forceps now removes the pin to another pair of clams. 1868G. Macdonald R. Falconer I. 136 Alexander..had the upper leather of a boot in the grasp of the clams. 1869Echo 26 Jan., They [poachers] were seen to place the clams over the rabbit holes and to put the ferrets into two of them. 1884F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 26 The round wire is..drawn through jewelled clams. 1886S.W. Lincoln. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Clams or Clems, wooden instruments, with which shoemakers or saddlers clip their leather to hold it fast. 1887Kent. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Clam, a rat-trap, like a gin. 1898Daily Chron. 14 Oct. 10/7 Stitchers (Female leather) wanted, used to the clambs. 1909Ibid. 2 June 9/5 Stitchers, female, leather, used to clambs.
b. A movable cheek or protective lining placed in the jaws of a vice.
1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 414/1 Holding it with convenient clams in his vice. 1888Sheffield Gloss. (E.D.S.) Clam, leather, paper, or lead linings for the jaws of a vice.
c. pl. ‘An instrument resembling a forceps employed in weighing gold’ (Jamieson).
1790Shirrefs Poems 360 (Jam.) The brightest gold that e'er I saw Was grippet in the clams.
d. ‘A kind of forceps used for bringing up specimens of the [sea-]bottom in sounding; a drag’ (Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., s.v. clams).
1821A. Fisher Voy. Arct. Reg. 17 Tied to the sounding line at..ten fathoms from the lead, or rather the clamm. (note This instrument is intended to bring up a greater quantity of sounding than the usual arming of the lead.) Ibid. 65 The deep-sea-clamm was used on this occasion, the soundings brought up, consisted chiefly of mud, intermixed with small stones.
†3. pl. Clutches, claws. Obs.
a1569A. Kingsmill Man's Est. xiv. (1580) 118 To plucke man out of the bloody clammes of that ravenyng Lyon Sathan. 1574E. Hake Touchstone B iij b, Luckish loytering lubbers [who] doo keepe within their clammes the lively⁓hood of true pastors and painful laborers.
4. Theatr. An instrument formed of two parallel pieces of board fastened at one end by a handle, used in pantomimes as a noisy sort of cudgel.
▪ II. clam, n.2|klæm|
Forms: 6 clamm, 7 clamme, 6– clam.
[Orig. clam-shell: app. from prec.; the name referring either to the action of the two valves of the shell in shutting like a pair of clams or pincers; or, as some suggest, to ‘the tenacity with which these animals cling to the rocks’.
The original application, however, was not to the rock species of the tropics, but to British bivalves which burrow in sand or mud.]
1. A name applied to various bivalve shell-fish.
a. In Scotland applied, from the 16th c. at least, to the Scallop-shell, Pecten Jacobæa; hence now by some naturalists taken as a book-name of the genus Pecten.
b. Also locally to the various species of fresh-water mussels Unio, Anodon.
1500–1540 [see clam-shell in 4]. 1593in Rogers Soc. Life Scot. I. ii. 56 Crabs, spoutfish and clamms. 1664Phil. Trans. I. 13 Upon their Fins and Tails they have store of Clams or Barnacles. 1769Pennant Brit. Zool. III. 140 The bait..a shell fish called Clams. 1813Hogg Queen's Wake 298 With the eel, and the clam, and the pearl of the deep. 1847Carpenter Zool. §941 The Pectens, or Clams, are known by the regular radiation of the ribs from the summit of each valve to the circumference. 1850Dana Geol. i. 27 The fresh-water clam, Unionidæ. 1852D. Moir Fowler vi. Poet. Wks. I. 70 Pools, where mussel, clam, and wilk, Clove to their gravelly beds.
c. Applied to foreign bivalves of the family Chamaceæ, comprehending the largest of shell-fish, as the giant clam or clamp (Tridacna gigas), the yellow clam (T. crocea), thorny clam (Chama Lazarus), etc.
1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 340/1 A Clamme is a kind of large shell-fish of the Muskle or Cockle species. 1697W. Dampier Voy. (1698) I. vii. 176 The Clam is a sort of Oyster [i.e. a species of chama] which grows so fast to the Rock that there is no separating it from thence, therefore we did open it where it grows, and take out the Meat, which is very large, fat and sweet. 1772–84Cook Voy. (1790) II. 1368 Spangles of the richest colours, glowing from a number of large clams. 1855W. S. Dallas in Orr Circ. Sc. Nat. Hist. I. 431 The tridacna gigas (or clam-shell). 1861J. Lamont Sea-horses ix. 142 The shells tridacnæ and cardia, vulgarly called clams and cockles.
d. In North America, applied esp. to two species, the Hard or Round Clam (Venus mercenaria), and the Soft or Long Clam (Mya arenaria), found in great abundance on sandy or muddy shores in many parts, and esteemed as articles of food: whence clam-bake and clam-chowder. Also applied to freshwater mussels, and see quot. 1850.
(Mya arenaria is also found on muddy shores in England, where it is known as the gaper-shell or Old Maid, under which name it is in some places sold for food.)
[1624Capt. Smith Virginia vi. 216 Mustels, Wilks, Oisters, Clamps, Periwinkels, and diuers others.] 1672J. Josselyn New Eng. Rarities 153 Clam, or Clamp, a kind of Shell Fish, a white Muscle. 1698B. Bullivant in Phil. Trans. 168 The Clam..hath a Plain Pipe or Proboscis, from whence he ejects Water, if compressed. [This is Mya.] 1841Catlin N. Amer. Ind. (1844) II. lvi. 209 We drew into our larder, clams, snails, frogs, and rattlesnakes. 1850Lyell 2nd Visit U.S. II. 104 The bivalve shell called Gnathodon..[found in] the Bay of Mobile..They are called clams here in popular language, and, being thick and strong, afford a good material for road-making. 1883Leisure Hour 252/1 The coarsest is the mud clam, or blue nose, which is dug out of the mud with tongs. Choicer ones are called sand clams..The best species is the sod clam found at Chicoteague.
e. phr. as happy as a clam, etc.: well pleased, quite contented. U.S. colloq.
1834Harvardiana I. 121 That peculiar degree of satisfaction, usually denoted by the phrase ‘as happy as a clam’. 1844‘J. Slick’ High Life N.Y. I. xi. 179 They seemed as happy as clams in high water. 1848Bartlett Dict. Amer. s.v., ‘As happy as a clam at high water’, is a very common expression in those parts of the coast of New England where clams are found. 1873J. H. Beadle Undevel. West 799 A thousand or more negroes thronged the streets ‘happy as clams at high tide’. 1940H. W. Thompson Body, Boots & Britches xix. 494 Happy as a clam in high water.
2. U.S. A term of contempt; one who is, in New England phrase, ‘as close as a clam’.
1871Mark Twain Sketches I. 46 (Hoppe) It will be lost on such an intellectual clam as you. Ibid. 54 No meddling old clam of a justice dropped in to make trouble.
3. U.S. slang. The mouth. Also clam-shell.
1825J. Neal Bro. Jonathan I. 143 Shet your clam, our David. 1848–60Bartlett Dict. Amer. s.v., There is a common though vulgar expression in New England, of ‘Shut your clam-shell’.
4. attrib. and Comb., as clam-bed, clam-digger, clam-eater, clam-fisher, clam-rake, clam-ranch; clam-digging, clam-feeding adjs.; clam-bait U.S., clams used as bait; clam-chowder, a chowder made with clams; also, a picnic or feast at which this is the principal dish; clam-cracker (see quot.); clam-fry, a meal of fried clams; clam-shell, the shell of a clam; formerly (Sc.) the scallop-shell worn in their hats by pilgrims who had crossed the seas; also slang (see 3); also, a bucket or grab on a dredger, excavator, etc., shaped like a clam-shell; freq. attrib.; clam-stick, the stick or pole with which tropical clams are caught by thrusting it between the partially open valves of the shell; clam-tongs, tongs used for taking clams.
1838Mass. Stat. cxxiv, An Act to regulate the Inspection of *Clam Bait. 1872Schele de Vere Americanisms 69 When salted for the fisheries it takes the name of clam-bait.
1884H. Spencer in Contemp. Rev. Feb. 162 Legislation to prevent trawling over *clam-beds.
1822W. Kitchiner Cook's Oracle 365 *Clam chowder. 1866J. K. Lord Brit. Columbia I. 192 Any one who has travelled in America must have eaten Clam-chowder..It is a sort of intermediate affair between a stew proper and soup. 1898Hamblen Gen. Manager's Story 131 The engineers had a clam chowder.
1909Webster, *Clamcracker, a stingray (Dasyatis centrura) of the Atlantic coast. It feeds largely on shellfish.
1855*Clam-digger [see clam-rake]. 1881Amer. Naturalist XV. 364 The ancient clam-diggers whose kitchen-middens are met with in many places on the Alameda. 1903Atlantic Monthly Sept. 327 He became far and away the best among the clam-diggers.
1838Knickerbocker XI. 207 Sam's trade was *clam-digging. 1860S. Warner Say & Seal xvi. 146 Faith..was certainly ‘spry’ in getting ready for the clam-digging.
1887Spectator 12 Mar. 351/2 The *clam-eaters of the Australian coast.
1855Whitman Leaves of Grass, Song of Joy The work of the eel-fisher and *clam-fisher.
1905N.Y. Even. Post 10 June 6 ‘Fish dinners’ and *clam fries are to be had at any number of eating-houses at the river's mouth.
1855Whitman Leaves of Grass, Song of Joy I come with my *clam-rake and spade..I join the group of clam-diggers on the flats. 1883Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 195 Clam-rakes, hoes, and claws.
1882Standard 26 Sept. 2/1 To ‘take up a *clam ranch’ is a proverbial expression [in Oregon] to express the last stage of hard fortune.
1500–20Dunbar Flyting 509 Thy cloutit cloke, thy skryp, and thy *clamschellis. 1540Sc. Ld. Treas. Acc. in Pitcairn Crim. Trials I. *305 For vj 1/4 vnces siluer to be ane Clam-schell to kepe the kingis grace Halk-mete. 1862Emerson Thoreau Wks. (Bohn) III. 334 Large heaps of clam-shells and ashes. a1877Knight Dict. Mech. I. 746/1 The ‘clam-shell’ dredge..consists of a pair of scoops which are hinged to an axis and close upon the load. 1877Encycl. Brit. VII. 465/1 Dipper and Clam-shell dredges. Ibid., The clam-shell is a box made of two similar pieces of wrought iron hinged together at one end. 1930Engineering 15 Aug. 195/3 Many types of dredgers had been tried such as..clam-shell, suction and other forms. 1963Ibid. 30 Aug. 269/2 The eight hydraulic rams operating the clamshells.
1882Standard 26 Sept. 2/1 The pointed ‘*clam stick’ figures in various aboriginal tales.
1883Goode Fish. Industries U.S. 52 *Clam-tongs are occasionally employed for catching crabs.
▪ III. clam, n.3|klæm|
Also 9 clamm.
[f. clam a.1 or v.1; or perh. a back-formation from clammy. (Cf. greed)]
†1. A soft or plastic mass. Obs. (Cf. cloam.)
1554Philpot Exam. & Writ. (1842) 340 Hath not the pot⁓maker power to form out of that same clam of earth that one vessel for an honourable use, and that other for contemptuous and vilenous?
2. Clamminess, cold dampness.
1694Westmacott Script. Herb. 17 Fat, ropy, sweet ale..creates clams in the viscera. 1827Carlyle Germ. Rom. III. 291 The clamm of the grave. 1830Forby Voc. East Anglia s.v., ‘The meat has been kept too long, and has got a clam’, begins to decay. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. v. v, Around you is starvation..corruption, and the clam of death.
▪ IV. clam, n.4
[A variant of clamp n.3: cf. the similar interchange of clam n.1, n.2 with clamp n.1, n.2.]
A pile of bricks arranged for burning.
1663Gerbier Counsel 53 Of bricks burnt in a Clam there are at the least in twenty thousand, five thousand unfit for work. Ibid. 54 Bricks..ought to be taken out of the clam by account from the Brickmaker.
▪ V. clam, n.5|klæm|
[Perh. onomatopœic; cf. clash, clang, slam: it suggests less notion of ringing and more of crash than clang. But cf. clamour v.2]
The crash caused by ringing two or more bells of a peal together.
1702Campanologia Improved (1753) 15 By the bells standing too long in leading compass, the rest are thrown and jumbled together; whereby claps and clams so unpleasing to the hearers) are occasion'd. a1789Burney Hist. Mus. (ed. 2) III. vii. 413 Even the clams or the collision of two bells together in counterpoint, has been settled by ringers without the least knowledge of harmony. 1822–76Nares s.v. Clamour, The bells..are all pulled off at once, and give a general crash or clam, by which the peal is concluded..this clam is succeeded by a silence.
▪ VI. clam, n.6 dial.
[app. short for clammer = clamber, used of a foot-bridge.]
A plank or crossing-stone over a brook.
1746Exmoor Scolding (1828) 12 Dest'nt remember whan tha com'st over tha clam..when tha water was by stave. 1861Smiles Engineers I. 240 There is a fourth [bridge] on the Blackabrook consisting of a single stone or clam.
▪ VII. clam, n.7 U.S. slang.
Brit. |klæm|, U.S. |klæm|
[Origin uncertain; perhaps an extended use of clam n.2]
An American dollar.
1886E. L. Wheeler N.Y. Nell 12 Bet a clam..he'd like to shut off my wind. 1929S. J. Perelman Dawn Ginsbergh's Revenge 121 Izzy's grandpaw..left him a half million clams in the will. 1955E. Merman Who could ask for anything More ii. 27 The custom-made department of the joint made me a bonnet... It cost me seventy-five clams, and I wore it only twice. 1978J. G. Dunne True Confessions i. 25 It was the day he won the office pool. In fact, the only good thing that happened that day was that he had the Dodgers and five runs in the Robbery-Homicide pool and Ed Head pitched a 5–0 no-hitter against the Boston Bees that was good for fifteen clams. 2002Washington Post (Home ed.) 14 Aug. c10/4 You get your privacy, mostly, and you're out just a few hundred clams.
▪ VIII. clam, a.1 Obs. exc. dial.|klæm|
[This word, clam n.3, clam v.1, clammy, and other derivatives, form a group of which the mutual relations are not quite clear. Although the verb is as yet cited earlier than the adj., the latter perhaps has etymological priority: it corresponds also to Du. and L.G. klam, in Kilian klam, klamp, ‘moist, clammy, viscous, sticky’, Da. and Sw. klam ‘dampish, wettish’. Not known in the earlier stages of these languages. Cf. clam v.1]
Sticky, glutinous, adhesive like wet clay. dial. a. Cold and damp, clammy; b. see quot. 1808.
c1440Promp. Parv. 79 Clam' or cleymows, glutinosus. 1595Duncan App. Etymol., Tenax, clamm, tewgh. 1641Best Farm. Bks. (1856) 71 Yow are not to beginne to marke soe longe as the markinge stuffe is any thing clamme, or cleaveth and ropeth..but lette it bee as thinne and runne of like water afore yow beginne. 1647H. More Song of Soul iii. iii. xxxiii, The hand did smite With a clam pitchie ray shot from that Centrall Night [the Egyptian darkness]. 1808Jamieson Sc. Dict. s.v., Ice is said to be clam, when beginning to melt with the sun or otherwise, and not easy to be slid upon. [Still so used.] 1877E. Peacock N.W. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Clam, (1) cold, damp. Thoo's strange an' clam, thu feels like a curpse. (2) tenacious, sticky, adherent. The muck's that clam, it wëant slip off'n th' sluff when ye dig it.
▪ IX. † clam, a.2 Obs. or dial.
[Related to clam n.1 It is not certain that sense 2 belongs to the same word: Jamieson thought that as a schoolboy's word, it might originate in the L. clam, ‘without the knowledge of’, ‘clandestinely’.]
†1. Grasping, pinching. Obs.
a1340Hampole Canticles in Psalter 511 In vile & clam couatys of men. [So also in Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 29.]
2. Sc. Base, mean, low; ‘a very common school-term in Edinburgh’ (Jam.). ? Obs.
1829Scott Gen. Pref. Waverley Nov. App. iii, He..reprobated the idea of being an informer, which he said was clam, i.e. base or mean.
▪ X. clam, v.1 Obs. exc. dial.|klæm|
Forms: 4–5 clammen, 6–8 clamm, (7 clambe), 6– clam.
[First found in 14–15th c., when it interchanged with cleme, OE. clǽman, to smear, anoint, daub, mod. dial. cleam. Of the latter, the pa. tense clǽmde prob. gave ME. clamde (like cladde, ladde, spradde, lafte, etc.), whence was educed a present clam perh. helped by clam a. and by clammy. The forms clame, claim, which (with cleam) are still found in northern dial., are treated under cleam v., q.v. for ulterior derivation.]
1. trans. To smear, daub, or spread unctuous matter on; to smear, anoint, or daub with.
c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. II. 93 (MS. a 1400) Crist..clammyde [v.r. clemed] cley on his eyen. 1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xii. xvi. 208 She clamd it [a sieve] with clay, and brought in..water. [1671–Clame, claim: see cleam.] 1884Cheshire Gloss., Clamme or clame, to plaister over.
2. To bedaub (a thing) so that it sticks; to clog or entangle with or in anything sticky; to stick or plaster up, together, etc.
1598Florio, Abbituminare, to bepitch, to cement or clam together. 1626T. H. Caussin's Holy Crt. 356 Passe ouer it, as a wary Bee ouer hony, not clamming your wings. 1694R. Lestrange Fables 346 The sprigs were all daubed with lime, and the poor Wretches clamm'd and taken. 1713J. Warder True Amazons 134 They will be clammed in it [the Honey].
fig.1683A. Behn Young King ii. iii, He that can..clam me in that love by every look.
3. To clog or choke up (by anything sticking in).
1527Andrew Brunswyke's Distyll. Waters G iij, The same water is good for them that hath clammed hym selfe or an other. 1599Nashe Lenten Stuffe (1871) 13 The western gales in Holland..swept the sands so before them, that they have choaked or clammed up the..door of the Rhine. 1655Moufet & Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 219 Utterly unwholesome, claming the Stomach, stopping the Veins and Passages. 1876Whitby Gloss., Clamm'd up, (an orifice) stopped up by anything glutinous, as the throat with phlegm. 1888Berkshire Gloss. (E.D.S.), Clammed, chocked up by over-filling.
b. fig. To cloy.
a1670Hacket Abp. Williams i. (1692) 52 Engaging..not to clam his taste with the smallest collection of flattery.
4. intr. To be clammy, or moist and sticky; to stick, adhere, as glutinous things.
1610Markham Masterp. i. liv. 117 The dough would so sticke and clambe in the horses mouth. 1690Dryden Amphitryon iii. i, A chilling Sweat, a damp of Jealousie, Hangs on my Brows, and clams upon my Limbs. 1877N.W. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Clam, to stick, to adhere as sheets of wet paper do to each other.
Hence clammed ppl. a., ˈclamming vbl. n.1 and ppl. a.
1641Milton Animadv. (1851) 220 [We] have our earthly apprehensions so clamm'd and furr'd with the old levin. 1683Tryon Way to Health 201 The finest of the Flour..is of a glutinating, clamming, and obstructing Nature.
▪ XI. clam, v.2|klæm|
[See clam n.6, clamour v.2]
1. a. intr. Of bells: To sound or crash together.
a1800Lines in Belfry St. Peter's, Shrewsb. (N.), When bells ring round and in their order be, They do denote how neighbours should agree; But when they clam, the harsh sound spoils the sport, And 'tis like women keeping Dover⁓court.
b. trans.
1702Campanalogia Improved, When they [bells] lie fifths thus 1 5 2 6 3 7 4 8, 'tis then most pleasant and excellent music to clam them; that is, the two notes of each concord to strike together, and if they be clam'd true the eight bells will strike like four, but with far greater musick and harmony. 1822–76Nares Gloss. s.v., The bells are said to be clamm'd when..they are all pulled off at once.
2. fig. To put an end to (din); to silence, hush: cf. clamour v.2 2.
1674N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. Ep. Ded., It..answers the noise of Talking by the stilness of Doing, as the Italians clam rowt and tattle into nodding and beckning.
Hence ˈclamming vbl. n.2
1684Sch. Recreation (T.), Clamming is when each concord strikes together, which being done true, the eight will strike but as four bells, and make a melodious harmony.
▪ XII. clam, v.3 dial.
[app. f. clam n.1 in sense of clutch.]
To clutch with the hand, grasp, grope.
1822Galt Steam-Boat 301 (Jam.), I felt, as I thought, a hand claming over the bed-clothes. 1877N.W. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) s.v., He clammed howd on her or she'd hev tippled into th' warpin' drëan. 1886S.W. Linc. Gloss. s.v., He clammed hold on the mane. 1879Jamieson s.v. Clam, To claum or glaum, is to grope or grasp as in the dark.
▪ XIII. clam, v.4 U.S.|klæm|
[f. clam n.2 1 d.]
intr.
1. To dig or collect clams.
1636[see clamming vbl. n.3]. 1676in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. (1825) I. 71 They were clamming..at Cowwesit. 1716B. Church Entertaining Passages Philip's War 29, Some [Indians] catching Eels & Flat-fish in the water, some Clamming. 1864Sufferings in Rebel Mil. Prisons 87 Formerly they had been allowed to go fishing and clamming.
2. slang (chiefly U.S.). To shut up; be silent. Also to clam up on: to refuse to talk to (someone). Hence clammed ppl. a.
1916H. L. Wilson Somewhere in Red Gap vi. 237 When I ask for details he just clams up. 1926J. Black You can't Win viii. 97 Smiler had continually drummed it into me never to answer any questions in case we were arrested. ‘Just clam up, kid.’ 1942R. Chandler High Window (1943) xx. 143, I had the legal right to stay clammed up—refuse to talk. 1959M. M. Kaye House of Shade vi. 68, I didn't mean to pry, but there's no need..to clam up on me.
▪ XIV. clam, v.5
var. of clem to pinch with hunger.
▪ XV. clam, clamb
obs. or dial. pa. tense of climb. |