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Gam

//ɡæm// noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person's leg, especially an attractive woman's leg. dated, slang

    "Make the salesclerk blush by flashing some gam and asking him to mix a bucket in your flesh tone."

  2. 2
    Collective noun used to refer to a group of whales, or rarely also of porpoises; a pod.

    "Upon getting into a "gam" of whales, this boat, together with that of one of the mates, pulled for a single whale that was seen at a distance from the others, and succeeded in getting square up to their victim unperceived."

  3. 3
    Abbreviation of gynandromorph. abbreviation, alt-of
  4. 4
    a herd of whales wordnet
  5. 5
    A social gathering of whalers (whaling ships). broadly

    "But what is a Gam? You might wear out your index-finger running up and down the columns of dictionaries, and never find the word, Dr. Johnson never attained to that erudition; Noah Webster’s ark does not hold it. Nevertheless, this same expressive word has now for many years been in constant use among some fifteen thousand true born Yankees. Certainly, it needs a definition, and should be incorporated into the Lexicon. With that view, let me learnedly define it. Gam. NOUN—A social meeting of two (or more) Whaleships, generally on a cruising-ground; when, after exchanging hails, they exchange visits by boats’ crews, the two captains remaining, for the time, on board of one ship, and the two chief mates on the other."

Verb
  1. 1
    To pay a social visit on another ship at sea. ambitransitive

    "Although most whalemen looked forward to gamming and enjoyed these ocean-borne gatherings, there were at least a few whalemen who either grew weary of them, or just weary of gamming so often with the same ships over and over."

  2. 2
    To engage in social intercourse anywhere. US, dialectal

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Italian gamba (“leg”). Doublet of gamb, gamba, jamb, and jambe. Compare gammon and ham.

Etymology 2

Uncertain but surely formed within English; etymons may include game or gammon.

Etymology 3

Uncertain but surely formed within English; etymons may include game or gammon.

See also for "gam"

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