loam

[ lohm ]

/ loʊm /

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See synonyms for: loam / loamy on Thesaurus.com

noun

a rich, friable soil containing a relatively equal mixture of sand and silt and a somewhat smaller proportion of clay.

a mixture of clay, sand, straw, etc., used in making molds for founding and in plastering walls, stopping holes, etc.

earth or soil.

Obsolete. clay or clayey earth.

verb (used with object)

to cover or stop with loam.

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Origin of loam

before 900; late Middle English lome, earlier lam(e), Old English lām; cognate with Dutch leem,German Lehm loam, clay; akin to lime²

OTHER WORDS FROM loam

loam·i·ness, nounloamless, adjectiveloamy, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use loam in a sentence

Everywhere we turn, there are loamy loins and torrents of testosterone.
Accidental Billionaires|Samuel P. Jacobs|July 16, 2009|DAILY BEAST
That night another loamy nook was found, clothed with a little thin grass, but waterless.
Overland|John William De Forest
There is no stone in the district, nothing but rich loamy clay, alias mud.
The Doings of the Fifteenth Infantry Brigade|Edward Lord Gleichen
The top-spit earth from an upland pasture, loamy, friable, and well reduced; 3.
The different modes of cultivating the pine-apple|John Claudius Loudon

The soil was rich and loamy, and the road we travelled was moist, and in some places very heavy for our waggon.
The Hunters' Feast|Mayne Reid
The loamy soils are especially adapted to corn, stock raising, and dairying, and they are largely used for these purposes.
History and Comprehensive Description of Loudoun County, Virginia|James W. Head

British Dictionary definitions for loam

loam

/ (ləʊm) /

noun

rich soil consisting of a mixture of sand, clay, and decaying organic material

a paste of clay and sand used for making moulds in a foundry, plastering walls, etc

verb

(tr) to cover, treat, or fill with loam

Derived forms of loam

loamy, adjectiveloaminess, noun

Word Origin for loam

Old English lām; related to Old Swedish lēmo clay, Old High German leimo

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