clam

Meaning

Noun

1. A bivalve mollusk of many kinds, especially those that are edible; for example soft-shell clams (Mya arenaria), hard clams (Mercenaria mercenaria), sea clams or hen clam (Spisula solidissima), and other species, possibly originally applied to clams of species Tridacna gigas, a huge East Indian bivalve.
2. A type of strong pincers or forceps.
3. A kind of vise, usually of wood.
4. (slang) A dollar.
5. (slang) A Scientologist.
6. (slang) A vagina or vulva.
7. (slang) In musicians' parlance, a wrong or misplaced note.
8. (informal) One who clams up; a taciturn person, one who refuses to speak.
9. (slang) mouth (Now found mostly in the expression shut one's clam)

Verb

To dig for clams.

Verb

To produce, in bellringing, a clam or clangor; to cause to clang.

Adj

clammy.

Verb

1. To be moist or glutinous; to stick; to adhere.
2. To clog, as with glutinous or viscous matter.

Synonyms

shellfish

mussel

scallop

shell

🐚

dollar

💵

cockle

buck

dollar bill

dry up

one dollar bill

oyster

🦪

cunt

escallop

scollop

pussy

😺

pipe down

quahog

shut up

snatch

stick

stirrup

tongs

wrap up

belt up

medium-large

piddock

shell stitch

pincer clamp

clamp frame

long surf clam

mussla

adhere

cooche

bivalve

cat

😺

clamp

🗜️

clench

cochlea

cramp

dummy

giant clam

greenback

gripper

hush up

juice

mollusc

mollusk

Pronounced as (IPA)

/klæm/

Etymology

From Middle English clam (“pincers, vice, clamp”), from Old English clamm (“bond, fetter, grip, grasp”), from Proto-West Germanic *klammjan (“press, squeeze together”). The sense “dollar” may allude to wampum. The sense "Scientologist" alludes to the Scientologist belief that human thetans (souls) previously inhabited clams.