gam
1 Americannoun
noun
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a herd or school of whales.
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Eastern New England, Nautical. a social meeting, visit, or the like, as between whaling vessels at sea.
verb (used without object)
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(of whales) to assemble into a herd or school.
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Nautical. (of the officers and crews of two whaling vessels) to visit or converse with one another for social purposes.
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Eastern New England. to participate in a gam or social visit.
noun
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a school of whales
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nautical an informal visit between crew members of whalers
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a flock of large sea birds
verb
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(intr) (of whales) to form a school
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nautical (of members of the crews of whalers) to visit (each other) informally
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(tr) to visit or exchange visits with
noun
Etymology
Origin of gam1
1775–85; probably < Polari < Italian gamba leg; see jamb 1
Origin of gam2
An Americanism dating back to 1840–50; perhaps dialectal variant of game 1
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.
See Examples For:
France center back Raphael Varane said there will be no danger of complacency among his teammates in a gam against the world’s No. 22-ranked team.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 13, 2022
Thirteen years later, Kobold enlisted five friends to help him carry what appeared to be the statue’s gam into his home, near the city of Hamburg.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 29, 2017
In Hebrew they say gam zeh ya'avor—this too shall pass.
From Golf Digest ● Nov. 8, 2016
Asked to describe the current shape of the Middle East, a visiting Israeli official uses a Hebrew expression, gam vegam , which translates roughly to: “It’s going in both directions at once.”
From Washington Post ● Mar. 1, 2016
The gam inhabits several forest-covered mountains in Central India, where it is only found wild.
From Quadrupeds, What They Are and Where Found A Book of Zoology for Boys by Harvey, William
Each ship which passed or dropped anchor at East Cape was gammed; each time the captain returned without word of his purpose.
From The Ice Pilot by Leverage, Henry
He was an old Arctic Ocean harpooner, and had once sailed on a whaler which had been gammed by the Ice Pilot.
From The Ice Pilot by Leverage, Henry
He fumbled and cursed, but that wasn't the worst, For he couldn't at all get free, And he cried, "I am gammed, and injustibly nammed On the luggardly whango tree."
From The Book of Humorous Verse by Wells, Carolyn
They gammed us the other side of St. Lawrence Island.
From The Ice Pilot by Leverage, Henry
Come on, shipmates!" he exclaimed, "stop gamming and get a move on and snug down this yer awning if you don't want to lose it.
From The Boy Aviators' Treasure Quest by Goldfrap, John Henry
Something there is of this nature on board the other schooner, her people often dropping hints to my officers and men, when they have been gamming.
From The Sea Lions The Lost Sealers by Cooper, James Fenimore
As soon as we came near enough, "gamming" commenced, for all of us were anxious to know how each other had fared.
From The Cruise of the Cachalot Round the World After Sperm Whales by Bullen, Frank T.
The change of course, the gamming by the Japanese sealer, the mystery of the skipper's actions—all these drove silence into the mates' hearts.
From The Ice Pilot by Leverage, Henry
Captain Kelly was the first to notice that whales sing One Sunday, while officers from three ships were "gamming" over their afternoon walrus-meat, Kelly dropped his glass with, "I hear a Bowhead!"
From The New North by Cameron, Agnes Deans
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.
