lame1
- crippled or physically disabled, especially in the foot or leg so as to limp or walk with difficulty.
- impaired or disabled through defect or injury: a lame arm.
- weak; inadequate; unsatisfactory; clumsy: a lame excuse.
- Slang. out of touch with modern fads or trends; unsophisticated.
- to make lame or defective.
- Slang. a person who is out of touch with modern fads or trends, especially one who is unsophisticated.
Origin of lame1
Examples from the Web for lameness
Contemporary Examples
I have conflicting feelings of lameness and warm fuzzies: I'm only worried because I really do respect him.
Historical Examples
I do not know how it is, but even her lameness is becoming to her.
The Memoirs of the Louis XIV. and The Regency, CompleteElizabeth-Charlotte, Duchesse d'Orleans
If the lameness arise from contraction, rather than from weakness, the best means will be frequent rubbing of the part affected.
His lameness, which was slight, was due to a long-standing infirmity of the hip.
A Son of HagarSir Hall Caine
I shall get rid of my lameness there, Margaret, shall I not?
David ElginbrodGeorge MacDonald
Until now, Margaret had not known to what a degree the lameness of Euphra had troubled her.
David ElginbrodGeorge MacDonald
lamé
- a fabric of silk, cotton, or wool interwoven with threads of metal
- (as modifier)a gold lamé gown
Word Origin
lame1
- disabled or crippled in the legs or feet
- painful or weaka lame back
- weak; unconvincinga lame excuse
- not effective or enthusiastica lame try
- US slang conventional or uninspiring
- (tr) to make lame
Word Origin
lame2
- one of the overlapping metal plates used in armour after about 1330; splint
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for lameness
lame
n.
"silk interwoven with metallic threads," 1922, from French lame, earlier "thin metal plate (especially in armor), gold wire; blade; wave (of the sea)," from Middle French lame, from Latin lamina, lamna "thin piece or flake of metal."
lame
adj.
Old English lama "crippled, lame; paralytic, weak," from Proto-Germanic *lamon (cf. Old Norse lami, Dutch and Old Frisian lam, German lahm "lame"), "weak-limbed," literally "broken," from PIE root *lem- "to break; broken," with derivatives meaning "crippled" (cf. Old Church Slavonic lomiti "to break," Lithuanian luomas "lame"). In Middle English, "crippled in the feet," but also "crippled in the hands; disabled by disease; maimed." Sense of "socially awkward" is attested from 1942. Noun meaning "crippled persons collectively" is in late Old English.
lame
v.
"to make lame," c.1300, from lame (adj.). Related: Lamed; laming.
lame
(lām)- Disabled so that movement, especially walking, is difficult or impossible.
- Marked by pain or rigidness.
- To cause to become lame; cripple.