gam

[gam]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR gam ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a herd or school of whales.

Eastern New England, Nautical. a social meeting, visit, or the like, as between whaling vessels at sea.

verb (used without object), gammed, gam·ming.

(of whales) to assemble into a herd or school.

Nautical. (of the officers and crews of two whaling vessels) to visit or converse with one another for social purposes.

Eastern New England. to participate in a gam or social visit.

Origin of gam

1840–50, Americanism; perhaps dialectal variant of game¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for gamming

tease, fool, coquet, disport, banter, ogle, proposition, pitch, philander, dally, eyeball, gam

Examples from the Web for gamming

Historical Examples of gamming

There is another little item about Gamming which must not be forgotten here.
Moby Dick; or The Whale
Herman Melville
As soon as we came near enough, "gamming" commenced, for all of us were anxious to know how each other had fared.
The Cruise of the Cachalot
Frank T. Bullen

British Dictionary definitions for gamming

gam

noun

a school of whales

nautical an informal visit between crew members of whalers

NZ a flock of large sea birds

verb gams, gamming or gammed

(intr) (of whales) to form a school

nautical (of members of the crews of whalers) to visit (each other) informally

(tr) US to visit or exchange visits with

Word Origin for gam

C19: perhaps dialect variant of game 1

gam

noun

slang a leg, esp a woman's shapely leg

Word Origin for gam

C18: probably from Old Northern French gambe or Lingua Franca gambe; see jamb

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

Word Origin and History for gamming

gam

"a leg," 1781, see gams.