Link Centre Dictionary

jam

UK/ˈd͡ʒam/ US/ˈd͡ʒæm/ common informal slang uk
verb (7) noun (4)

verb

1.

press tightly together or cram

  • “The crowd packed the auditorium”
Synonyms
2.

push down forcibly

  • “The driver jammed the brake pedal to the floor”
3.

crush or bruise

  • “jam a toe”
Synonyms
4.

interfere with or prevent the reception of signals

  • “Jam the Voice of America”
  • “block the signals emitted by this station”
Synonyms
5.

get stuck and immobilized

  • “the mechanism jammed”
6.

crowd or pack to capacity

  • “the theater was jampacked”
Synonyms
7.

block passage through

  • “obstruct the path”
Synonyms
Antonyms

noun

1.
2.

informal terms for a difficult situation

  • “he got into a terrible fix”
  • “he made a muddle of his marriage”
Synonyms
3.

a dense crowd of people

Synonyms
4.

Origin

First attested in the early 18th c. as a verb meaning “to press, be pressed, be wedged in”. Compare dialectal jammock (“to press, squeeze, crush into a soft mass, chew food"; also "a soft, pulpy substance”). Perhaps from Middle English chammen, champen ("to bite upon something, gnash the teeth"; whence modern champ, chomp), of uncertain origin; probably originally onomatopoeic. The "performance" sense is first attested with regards to jazz in 1929, and its origin, though uncertain, is likely metaphorical, "something sweet made by the combination of many things", with influence from jamboree.

Phrases

  • finger jam climbing terms
  • fist jam climbing terms
  • foot jam climbing terms
  • hand jam climbing terms
  • ice jam climbing terms
  • jam band
  • jam on the brakes
  • jam one's hype
  • jam up
  • pinkie jam climbing terms
  • ring jam climbing terms
  • thumb-down jam climbing terms

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

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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.