clam up

English

Alternative forms

• (idiomatic) shut up like a clam

Etymology

By analogy with a clam closing itself. Compare clamshell (“mouth”), clam (“mouth”).

Pronunciation

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Verb

clam up (third-person singular simple present clams up, present participle clamming up, simple past and past participle clammed up)

1. (intransitive, informal) To become silent; to stop talking.

   Synonyms: shut up; see also Thesaurus:be quiet

   • 1986, Paul Chadwick, Concrete: Under the Desert Stars, Dark Horse Books:

     Maybe he … or she … was a witness who refused to clam up … a whistle blower …

   • 1993, “Matt Foley: A Scary Story on Halloween”, in Saturday Night Live‎^[1], season 19, spoken by Matt Foley (Chris Farley):

     Teenagers' father. Alright, Matt, I think you've made your point.
     Matt Foley: Dad, I sincerely wish you'd do everyone a great service, and clam up!

2. (transitive, intransitive) To make or become clammy.

Antonyms

• talk

Translations

become silent

• Breton: tevel (br)
• Dutch: zwijgen (nl), zijn mond houden
• Esperanto: silenti
• Finnish: hiljetä (fi)
• French: (colloquial) la fermer (fr), (colloquial) fermer son clapet (fr), (vulgar) fermer son claque-merde (fr), (informal) la boucler (fr)
• German: schweigen (de)
• Greek: σωπαίνω (el) (sopaíno)
• Italian: tacere (it)
• Japanese: 黙ってしまう (だまってしまう, damatte shimau)
• Kazakh: үндемеу (ündemeu)
• Limburgish: zwiege (li)
• Maore Comorian: uɓuriha
• Maori: whakangūngū
• Northern Sami: jaskkodit, jávohuvvat
• Portuguese: fechar-se
• Russian: замолка́ть (ru) impf (zamolkátʹ), замолча́ть (ru) pf (zamolčátʹ)
• Spanish: callarse (es)
• Swedish: tiga (sv)
• Záparo: yánunu