Sam
adj, adv, name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Synonym of Dicky Sam (“a man from Liverpool”) UK, informal
- 2 Federal narcotics agent. slang
- 3 Initialism of surface-to-air missile. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 4 a guided missile fired from land or shipboard against an airborne target wordnet
- 5 Initialism of self-assembled monolayer. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
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- 6 Initialism of systolic anterior motion. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 7 Initialism of single abstract method. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
"A SAM conversion occurs when Java converts the SAM interface into functional code."
- 8 Initialism of split attraction model. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
"The SAM is a way of deliberately de-coupling sex and romance."
- 9 Initialism of shared appreciation mortgage. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 10 Initialism of smartass masochist; a brat. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
"Sexy dyke seeks seasoned top to spice up my play life. Interested? Think you have what it takes to tame a novice SAM? Write me at GCN Box 545"
- 1 To assemble. UK, dialectal, transitive
- 2 To bring together; join (in marriage, friendship, love, etc.). UK, dialectal, transitive
- 3 To bring together; collect; put in order; arrange. UK, dialectal, transitive
"I sammed it up for ye"
- 4 To assemble; come together. UK, dialectal, intransitive
- 5 To coagulate; curdle (milk). UK, dialectal, transitive
- 1 Half or imperfectly done. dialectal, not-comparable
- 2 Half-heated. not-comparable
- 1 Together not-comparable, obsolete
"Now are they saints all in that city sam."
- 1 A diminutive of the male given names Samuel or Samson.
"While the plane is “perfectly capable” of making the trip without these modifications, Zara’s father Sam Rutherford says these changes have given both him and Zara an extra sense of security."
- 2 Acronym of Sample Analysis at Mars (a scientific instrument of the Mars Science Laboratory on board the Curiosity rover on Mars.) abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
- 3 A diminutive of the female given name Samantha.
- 4 A surname from Cantonese, a romanization of 岑 (sam⁴) or 沈 (cam⁴ / zam³).
- 5 A town in Alibori department, Benin.
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- 6 A town in Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso.
- 7 A town in Bourzanga department, Bam, Burkina Faso.
- 8 A village in Kongoussi department, Bam, Burkina Faso.
- 9 A Trans-New Guinea language of Papua New Guinea.
- 10 A surname from Khmer
- 11 The Sam Maguire Cup awarded to the All-Ireland GAA football winning team. Ireland, informal
Example
More examples"When he got to the party, Sam made a bee line for the food."
Etymology
From Middle English sammen, samnen, from Old English samnian, ġesamnian (“to collect, assemble, bring together, gather, join, unite, compose, meet, glean”), from Proto-West Germanic *samnōn, from Proto-Germanic *samnōną (“to gather”), from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one”). Cognate with Dutch zamelen (“to collect”), German sammeln (“to collect, gather”), Swedish samla (“to gather, collect”), Icelandic samna (“to gather, collect”). More at same.
From Middle English sām (“together”), from Old English samen (“together”), from Proto-West Germanic *saman, from Proto-Germanic *samanai (“together”), from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“together, one”).
From Middle English sam- (prefix), from Old English sam-, from Proto-Germanic *sēmi- (“half”), from Proto-Indo-European *sēmi- (“half”). Related to semi- (via Latin).
Possibly from Uncle Sam.
Related phrases
More for "sam"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.