glom
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to steal.
-
to catch or grab.
-
to look at.
noun
verb phrase
verb
-
to attach oneself to or associate oneself with
-
to acquire, esp without paying
Etymology
Origin of glom
1895–1900, compare Scots glaum, glam to snatch at, glammis jaws of a vise, apparently < Scots Gaelic glàm to grab, clutch, influenced by clam 2
Explanation
To figuratively grab or seize something is to glom onto it. A local newspaper might simply glom onto whatever stories the larger national papers are covering. While you can also use glom to simply mean "steal," as when a pickpocket gloms your wallet in the subway, today we often use this verb to describe a kind of latching on to an idea, issue, or topic. If polls show most voters care about income inequality, every single candidate is likely to glom onto this theme in some way. The "steal" meaning is oldest, an American word borrowed from the Scottish glaum.
Vocabulary lists containing glom
English Words Derived from Gaelic
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One Crazy Summer
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Posted
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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:
These days, a horror film must also be a blistering allegory for real life, with plenty of subtextual significance for the thinking viewer to glom onto.
From Salon ● Mar. 29, 2026
In anti-LGI1 encephalitis, the second most common of these diseases after anti-NMDAR encephalitis, autoantibodies glom onto and impede LGI1 protein, which is found in synapses and helps regulate the transmission of electrical signals between neurons.
From Science Magazine ● May 15, 2024
AGEs arise when blood sugar is poorly controlled and elevated levels of sugar molecules known as glucose begin to glom onto nearby proteins including collagen -- a key structural component of the extracellular matrix.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 1, 2024
These nasty, bloodsucking parasites glom on to you when you least suspect it.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 7, 2023
She says it’s because I’m “the right person for the job,” but I know she’s just trying to glom off my reputation as the main guy behind the paper chain project.
From "Linked" by Gordon Korman
Elon Musk, previously a longtime Signal fan, glommed onto Rufo’s posts to allude to “known vulnerabilities with Signal,” in a tweet that saw him get corrected by his own beloved Community Notes feature.
From Slate ● Mar. 27, 2025
Soon after the memes started making the rounds on Sunday, other politicians glommed on.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2024
Although it, too, contained these microspheres, they had glommed together into clumps of uneven size.
From Science Magazine ● May 21, 2024
“I immediately glommed onto Dawn because I’ve had that internal experience.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 4, 2024
I like him a heap better," he owned frankly, "since I glommed him devouring that letter from Miss Gertrude M. Shannon.
From The Ranch at the Wolverine by Bower, B. M.
Wall Street is glomming on to yet another acronym inspired in part by Mexican cuisine.
From MarketWatch ● May 9, 2026
It is alienating, and you wonder what it is, and whether it’s genuine or just a way of publicly glomming on to the perceived grievances and resentments of his supporters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 19, 2026
What have you noticed about traditional media glomming on to this moment of increased interest in women’s sports?
From Slate ● Sep. 14, 2024
Instead gravity alone is this invisible substance’s master—meaning that in mere moments after the big bang, when primordial chaos otherwise reigned, gravity immediately began glomming together dark matter into large clumps known as halos.
From Scientific American ● Dec. 6, 2022
But his narrowed eyes bounce off me, glomming on to something beyond.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
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.
