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jam

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

See also: jamb, JAM, jám, -jam, Jam., and ям

English

Marmalade, a type of jam, spread on a piece of bread
A strawberry jam and peanut butter sandwich

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

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.

Noun

jam (countable and uncountable, plural jams)

  1. (less common in the US and Canada) A sweet mixture of fruit boiled with sugar and allowed to congeal. Often spread on bread or toast or used in jam tarts.
    Synonyms: (US) conserve, jelly, preserve
  2. (countable) A difficult situation.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:difficult situation
    • 1928, Upton Sinclair, Boston:
      It's a blackmail ring, and the district attorneys get a share of the loot. […] Well, they got him in the same kind of jam, and soaked him to the tune of three hundred and eighty-six thousand.
    • 1975, Bob Dylan, “Tangled Up in Blue”:
      She was married when we first met / Soon to be divorced / I helped her out of a jam, I guess / But I used a little too much force
    • 1977, David Byrne, “Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town”, in Talking Heads: 77, performed by Talking Heads:
      Where, where is my common sense? / How did I get in a jam like this?
    1. (countable, baseball) A difficult situation for a pitcher or defending team.
      The pitcher's in a jam now, having walked the bases loaded with the cleanup hitter coming to bat.
  4. (countable) A blockage, congestion, or immobilization.
    Synonym: jam-up
    Hyponyms: paper jam, traffic jam
    a jam on the 101 South, blocking the two right lanes [radio report]
    a jam of logs in a river
    • 2019 February 14, National Transportation Safety Board, “1.3.2.3 Elevator Design Standard for Ground Gust Loads”, in Aircraft Accident Report: Runway Overrun During Rejected Takeoff, Ameristar Air Cargo, Inc., dba Ameristar Charters, flight 9363, Boeing MD-83, N786TW, Ypsilanti, Michigan, March 8, 2017‎, archived from the original on 2 July 2022, page 12:
      According to Boeing, in the history of this elevator design (which exists on all Boeing DC-9/MD-80 series and 717 model airplanes), this accident was the first notification that Boeing had received of an elevator jam occurring on an airplane exposed to ground gusts lower than 65 kts. Boeing noted that the elevator design first entered service in 1965 on the then-Douglas DC-9 airplane.
  5. (countable, popular music) An informal, impromptu performance or rehearsal.
  6. (countable, by extension, informal) A song; a track.
    • 2001, Jet, volume 100, number 22, page 25:
      The result is an outstanding assortment of sophisticated, sexy and hip-hop-tinged R&B grooves, ballads and party jams.
  7. (countable, by extension) An informal event where people brainstorm and collaborate on projects.
    We came up with some new ideas at the game jam.
    • 2017, Fred Patten, Furry Fandom Conventions, 1989-2015, page 92:
      […] a day at new Farm Park with an art jam, fursuit games, and a nerf war, ending in the evening at the strike Wintergarden bowling center.
  8. (countable, slang) That which one particularly prefers, desires, enjoys, or cares about.
    Teaching is my jam.
  9. (countable, basketball) A forceful dunk.
  10. (countable, roller derby) A play during which points can be scored.
    Toughie scored four points in that jam.
  11. (countable, climbing) Any of several manoeuvres requiring wedging of an extremity into a tight space.
    I used a whole series of fist and foot jams in that crack.
  12. (Australia) The tree Acacia acuminata, with fruity-smelling hard timber.
    Synonyms: raspberry jam tree, stinking acacia
  13. (UK, slang) Luck.
    He's got more jam than Waitrose.
  14. (Canada, slang) balls, bollocks, courage, machismo
    I don't think he has the jam.
  15. (slang) Sexual relations or the contemplation of them.
  16. (slang) Something enjoyable; a delightful situation or outcome.
    • 1939 July 19, The Bulletin, Sydney, page 14, column 1:
      ’Tis fine to be a pretty girl, or just a gay and witty girl,
      And obviously to be both is rightly counted jam,
      But even more desirable, and clearly less acquirable,
      Is that mysterious quality denominated glam.
Derived terms
terms derived from jam (noun)
climbing terms
Descendants
Translations
See also

Verb

jam (third-person singular simple present jams, present participle jamming, simple past and past participle jammed)

  1. To get something stuck, often (though not necessarily) in a confined space.
    My foot got jammed in a gap between the rocks.
    Her poor little baby toe got jammed in the door.
    I jammed the top knuckle of my ring finger.
  2. To brusquely force something into a space; to cram, to squeeze.
    They temporarily stopped the gas tank leak by jamming a piece of taffy into the hole.
    The rush-hour train was jammed with commuters.
    • 1779, George Colman, Farewell Epilogue, spoken at Wynnstay after the representation of Cymbeline and The Spanish Barber, 22 January, 1779, in Prose on Several Occasions: Accompanied with Some Pieces in Verse, London: T. Cadel, 1787, Volume 3, p. 283,
      Since the new post-horse tax, I dare engage
      That some folks here have travell’d in the Stage:
      Jamm’d in at midnight, in cold winter weather,
      The crouded passengers are glew’d together.
  3. To render something unable to move.
    • 2019 February 14, National Transportation Safety Board, “2.3.3 Elevator Load Testing”, in Aircraft Accident Report: Runway Overrun During Rejected Takeoff, Ameristar Air Cargo, Inc., dba Ameristar Charters, flight 9363, Boeing MD-83, N786TW, Ypsilanti, Michigan, March 8, 2017‎, archived from the original on 2 July 2022, page 56:
      Considering the results of the CFD wind simulation, the NTSB designed several series of static and dynamic elevator load tests to determine what conditions, consistent with the known circumstances of the accident, could enable the inboard actuating crank and links of the right elevator's geared tab to move beyond their normal range of travel and become locked in an overcenter position (and, as a result, jam the right elevator).
  4. To cause congestion or blockage. Often used with "up".
    A single accident can jam the roads for hours.
  5. To block or confuse a radio or radar signal by transmitting a more-powerful signal on the same frequency.
    The government jams foreign propaganda broadcasts.
    The airstrike suffered minimal casualties because electronic-warfare aircraft were jamming the enemy air-defense radars.
  7. (baseball) To throw a pitch at or near the batter's hands.
    Jones was jammed by the pitch.
  8. (basketball) To dunk.
  10. (music) To play music (especially improvisation as a group, or an informal unrehearsed session).
  11. To injure a finger or toe by sudden compression of the digit's tip.
    When he tripped on the step he jammed his toe.
  12. (roller derby) To attempt to score points.
    Toughie jammed four times in the second period.
  13. (nautical, transitive) To bring (a vessel) so close to the wind that half her upper sails are laid aback.
    • (Can we date this quote?), William Clark Russell, The Golden Hope:
      It won't do to jam her,” answered Stone ;" but it might be worth findin' out if th' Hope won't lie closer than t' other can." Half a point ----"
  14. (Canada, informal) To give up on a date or some other joint endeavour; to stand up, chicken out, jam out.
  15. (colloquial) To be of high quality.
    I love this song! This song jams!
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Persian or Hindi, meaning "garment, robe;" see جامه (“garment”). Related to pajamas.

Noun

jam (plural jams)

  1. (dated) A kind of frock for children.

Etymology 3

Noun

jam (plural jams)

  1. (mining) Alternative form of jamb

References

See also

Anagrams

Albanian

Baba Malay

Chinese

Czech

Dutch

Esperanto

Fula

Garo

Highland Popoluca

Iban

Indonesian

Interlingua

Javanese

Latgalian

Latin

Lindu

Lithuanian

Malay

North Frisian

Polish

Slovene

Spanish

Swedish

Uzbek

Welsh

West Frisian

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