scram
1 Americanverb (used without object)
noun
verb (used with object)
noun
verb
verb
Etymology
Origin of scram1
1925–30; probably shortened form of scramble (but compare German schramm, imperative singular of schrammen to depart)
Origin of scram2
1945–50; perhaps identical with scram 1, though sense development is unclear
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:
If a cop tells you to scram, “You can say, ‘It is my understanding I have every right to record this.
From Seattle Times ● May 21, 2021
Ferraro walked the same tightrope that tripped up Hillary Clinton when she wondered if she should wheel around in that debate and tell the creeping Donald Trump to scram.
From New York Times ● Aug. 8, 2020
“In the words of that Grouch, they can scram/ Because, well, me yams what me yams,” countered Casal.
From Slate ● Feb. 27, 2018
The future D.C. mayor was 16 years younger than Rutherford, who remembers her father, Joe, ordering him and his friends to scram when they played ball in a nearby field.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 28, 2015
She seems to welcome my presence because she lets me stay there instead of telling me to scram, like in the old days.
From "Before We Were Free" by Julia Alvarez
The good news is they scrammed, leaving me and my bike alone.
From Forbes ● May 5, 2015
Good Night Ladies thereupon scrammed to San Francisco for a week, clicked, stayed five.
From Time Magazine Archive
Automatic systems would have "scrammed" the reactors, pushing control rods into the core and shutting them down.
From Time Magazine Archive
The three active reactors at the plant had successfully scrammed.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
All three of the scrammed reactors had emergency cooling systems.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
Another image from the series shows a group of children "scramming" for coins tossed to them after a wedding in one of Dundee's churches.
From BBC ● Feb. 27, 2010
A giant lobby clock hangs above the scattered people, the crowds scramming either to something or away from it—I can’t tell.
From "Better Nate Than Ever" by Tim Federle
I was confronted with the alternatives of scramming or calling him a liar.
From The Old Martians by Roger Phillips Graham
We are scramming through that crowd like mad, and we are in the clear.
From Hoiman and the Solar Circuit by Gordon Dewey
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.
