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Synonyms

clam up

British  

verb

  1. informal (intr, adverb) to keep or become silent or withhold information

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
clam up Idioms  

  1. Refuse to talk or respond, as in Whenever she asks her teenager about his activities, he clams up. This term alludes to the tightly closed valves of a live clam. [Slang; early 1900s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“Well, would the Traveler in your head have clammed up yesterday?”

From Literature

The question prompts Epstein to clam up: “Send me a number to call I don’t like records of these conversations.”

From The Wall Street Journal

Normally so open in his media conferences, Amorim clammed up when he was asked to explain something he said on Christmas Eve about his preferred style of play.

From BBC

“We’re good, right? You won’t tell anybody it was me? I’m kinda hoping everybody just…clams up. Like ‘We don’t know what happened!

From Literature

However, he clammed up when Welker asked him to share other methods in which he might stay on.

From Salon

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.