Link Centre Dictionary

cram

UK/kɹæm/ US/ˈkræm/ uncommon british dated slang

verb

1.

crowd or pack to capacity

  • “the theater was jampacked”
Synonyms
2.

put something somewhere so that the space is completely filled

  • “cram books into the suitcase”
3.

study intensively, as before an exam

  • “I had to bone up on my Latin verbs before the final exam”
Synonyms
4.

prepare (students) hastily for an impending exam

Origin

From Middle English crammen, from Old English crammian (“to cram; stuff”), from Proto-West Germanic *krammōn, from Proto-Germanic *krammōną, a secondary verb derived from *krimmaną (“to stuff”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to assemble; collect; gather”). Compare Old English crimman (“to cram; stuff; insert; press; bruise”), Icelandic kremja (“to squeeze; crush; bruise”).

Phrases

  • cram it
  • cram school
  • cram session
  • cram together

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Related verbs

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.