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:
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
Mind you, the Sinclair interview may have been a bridge too far even for those who ordinarily glom on to free-thinkers who are "just asking questions."
From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2023
These nasty, bloodsucking parasites glom on to you when you least suspect it.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 7, 2023
It’s an apt curtain raiser for a 1994-95 season in which newness and sameness glom together indistinguishably, but “thirtysomething” glistened from its inception with a seductive uniqueness that this latest series does not initially share.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2022
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
Sure, some immature viewers might have glommed onto the edgy comedy of yesteryear.
From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2026
Villarreal: The way people like glommed onto it, like it was all over TikTok with captions like, “This is me in my kitchen.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2025
The boldest Bitcoin and crypto advocates, including Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong, have glommed on to this philosophy.
From Slate ● May 2, 2024
Subtle shifts in the spacecraft’s radio communications with Earth will let researchers map the asteroid’s gravity field, which will reveal whether Psyche is a uniformly dense hunk of metal or glommed together from rubble.
From Science Magazine ● Oct. 13, 2023
"Don't you know, even, why she came and glommed onto me like that?"
From The Uphill Climb 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
The pairing of the previous version of the bill, coupled with Newsom's puzzling Skittles example led to the internet glomming onto the rainbow candies as a prized, yet incorrect, example.
From Salon ● Oct. 18, 2023
“Then you’re not just glomming on. If factories are your subject, how could you not do I. G. Farben.”
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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.
