bam

See also: Appendix:Variations of "bam"

Translingual

Symbol

bam

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Bambara.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bæm/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æm

Etymology 1

Onomatopoeic.

Interjection

bam

1. Representing a loud noise or heavy impact.

   The wind knocked the tree over last night. Bam! It nearly scared me to death.

   • 2007, Joe Biden, Promises to Keep‎, New York: Random House, published 2008, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 266:

     We all looked up from the maps, silent, and listened to the hurried footsteps in the entryway. They padded up the red carpet, bam-bam-bam, and across the landing and then up the next flight at a gallop, bam-bam-bam.

2. Representing a sudden or abrupt occurrence.

   She said she dumped him. Now — bam! — they're back together.

Synonyms

• bang
• blam
• pow
• wham
• dishoom (India)

Derived terms

• bammo
• kabam
• wham, bam, thank you ma'am

Translations

sound of a forceful blow

Czech: bác (cs) Esperanto: bac Polish: bach (pl)

Etymology 2

Noun

bam (plural bams)

1. (Scotland, slang) A ned; a bampot.

Etymology 3

Perhaps from bamboozle.

Noun

bam (plural bams)

1. (slang, archaic) An imposition; a cheat; a hoax.
   • 1844, John Wilson, Essay on the Genius, and Character of Burns:

     To relieve the tedium he kept plying them with all manner of bams.

Verb

bam (third-person singular simple present bams, present participle bamming, simple past and past participle bammed)

1. (slang, archaic) To impose on (someone) by a falsehood; to cheat.
   • 1774, Samuel Foote, The Cozeners:

     This is some conspiracy, I suppose, to bam, to chouse me out of my money

   • 1747, David Garrick, Miss in Her Teens: or the Medley of Lovers, Act II, in The Plays of David Garrick: A Complete Collection of the Social Satires, French Adaptations, Pantomimes, Christmas and Musical Plays, Preludes, Interludes, and Burlesques, ed. Harry William Pedicord and Fredrick Louis Bergmann, vol. 1 (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1980), 93

     I’ll break a lamp, bully a constable, bam a justice, or bilk a boxkeeper with any man in the liberties of Westminster.

2. (slang, archaic) To jeer or make fun of.

Etymology 4

Noun

bam (plural bams)

1. Abbreviation of bare-arse minimum. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Anagrams

• -mab, ABM, B. M. A., BMA, MAb, MBA, Mab, Mba, amb, amb., mAb, mab

Chinese

Etymology

Misspelling of English ban. Doublet of ban.

Pronunciation

• Cantonese (Jyutping): bem¹

---

• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: bem¹
    • Cantonese Pinyin: bem¹
    • Guangdong Romanization: bém¹
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /pɛːm⁵⁵/

Verb

bam

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese, Internet slang, leetspeak, neologism) to ban [2006]

Derived terms

• bam圖 / bam图

Iban

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bam/

Adjective

bam

1. greedy