clem

See also: Clem, Clém, and Clem.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klɛm/

• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -ɛm

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle English *clemmen, *clammen, from Old English clemman, clæmman (“to press, surround”), from Proto-West Germanic *klammjan (“to squeeze”).

Cognate with Dutch klemmen (“to jam, pinch, stick”), German klemmen (“to jam, clamp; to be stuck, stick [to a surface]”).

Alternative forms

• clam

Verb

clem (third-person singular simple present clems, present participle clemming, simple past and past participle clemmed)

1. (UK, dialect, transitive or intransitive) To be hungry; starve.
   • 1889, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, Between Two Loves, Ch. VI, p. 110:

     " […] Here he's back home again, and without work, and without a penny, and thou knows t' little one and I were pretty well clemmed to death when thou got us a bit o' bread and meat last night. We were that!"

References

• The Dictionary of the Scots Language

Etymology 2

Possibly from clementine, a small round citrus fruit.

Noun

clem (plural clems)

1. (Geordie, vulgar, slang) A testicle.

References

• “clem”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Etymology 3

Verb

clem (third-person singular simple present clems, present participle clemming, simple past and past participle clemmed)

1. Alternative form of clam (“to adhere”)

Anagrams

• ECML