Pronunciations
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/læm/
Verb
To beat or thrash.
Usage- Informal
- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
They lammed each other on the head with great, clumsy stone hammers; but their skulls were so hard that the hammers bounced off again […]
To flee or run away.
Usage- Dated
- Intransitive
- Slang
- Examples
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[Gangster running away:] Batman and Robin! Let's lam!
More examples (1)
[…]and she was so mad and so down deep vindictive that she reported to the police some false trumped-up hysterical crazy charge, and Dean had to lam from Hoboken.
Noun
A flight or escape.
Usage- Slang
- Related words
- Examples
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on the lam
Noun
The twenty-third letter of the Arabic alphabet, ل (l). It is preceded by ك (k) and followed by م (m).
- Related words
Noun
a rapid escape (as by criminals)
- Synonyms
- Examples
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the thieves made a clean getaway
after the expose he had to take it on the lam
Verb
flee; take to one's heels; cut and run
- Synonyms
- Examples
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If you see this man, run!
The burglars escaped before the police showed up
give a thrashing to; beat hard