lam2
[lam]Slang.
- a hasty escape; flight.
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- to run away quickly; escape; flee: I'm going to lam out of here as soon as I've finished.
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- on the lam, escaping, fleeing, or hiding, especially from the police: He's been on the lam ever since he escaped from jail.
- take it on the lam, to flee or escape in great haste: The swindler took it on the lam and was never seen again.
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Origin of lam2
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
lam1
- (tr) to thrash or beat
- (intr; usually foll by into or out) to make a sweeping stroke or blow
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Word Origin
C16: from Scandinavian; related to Old Norse lemja
lam2
- a sudden flight or escape, esp to avoid arrest
- on the lam
- making an escape
- in hiding
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- (intr) to escape or flee
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Word Origin
C19: perhaps from lam 1 (hence, to be off)
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 on the lam
lam
n.
"flight," as in on the lam, 1897, from a U.S. slang verb meaning "to run off" (1886), of uncertain origin, perhaps somehow from the first element of lambaste, which was used in British student slang for "beat" since 1590s; if so, it would give the word the same etymological sense as the slang expression beat it.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with on the lam
on the lam
Running away, especially from the police, as in He's always in some kind of trouble and perpetually on the lam. The origin of this slangy term of the 1800s is not known.
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lam
see on the lam.
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.