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Lam
Definitions
- 1 A surname from Cantonese.
- 1 A flight or escape. slang
"on the lam"
- 2 The twenty-third letter of the Arabic alphabet, ل (l). It is preceded by ك (k) and followed by م (m).
- 3 Abbreviation of light antiarmor/antiarmour missile. abbreviation, alt-of
- 4 a rapid escape (as by criminals) wordnet
- 5 Abbreviation of land attack missile. abbreviation, alt-of
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- 6 Abbreviation of loitering attack missile. abbreviation, alt-of
- 7 Acronym of lactational amenorrhea method, a method of birth control through breastfeeding. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
- 1 To beat or thrash. informal, transitive
"1930, Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, Mule Bone, Act II, Scene 2, in The Collected Works of Langston Hughes, Volume 5: The Plays to 1942: Mulatto to The Sun Do Move, edited by Leslie Catherine Sanders, Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002, p. 102, An' fo' I knowed it, he done picked up that bone an' lammed me ovah de head wid it."
- 2 give a thrashing to; beat hard wordnet
- 3 To flee or run away. dated, intransitive, slang
"[Gangster running away:] Batman and Robin! Let's lam!"
- 4 flee; take to one's heels; cut and run wordnet
Etymology
From Middle English lamen, lemen, from Old English lemian and Old Norse lemja; both from Proto-Germanic *lamjaną.
From Middle English lamen, lemen, from Old English lemian and Old Norse lemja; both from Proto-Germanic *lamjaną.
From Arabic لَام (lām), the name of the letter ل (l).
Borrowed from Cantonese 林 (lam4) or Cantonese 藍／蓝 (lam4). Doublet of Lin and Lim.
See also for "lam"
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