Obs. or dial. [Related to CLAM sb.1 It is not certain that sense 2 belongs to the same word: Jamieson thought that as a schoolboy’s word, it might originate in the L. clam, ‘without the knowledge of,’ ‘clandestinely.’]

1

  † 1.  Grasping, pinching. Obs.

2

a. 1340.  Hampole, Canticles, in Psalter, 511. In vile & clam couatys of men. [So also in Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 29.]

3

  2.  Sc. Base, mean, low; ‘a very common school-term in Edinburgh’ (Jam.). ? Obs.

4

1829.  Scott, Gen. Pref. Waverley Nov., App. iii. He … reprobated the idea of being an informer, which he said was clam, i.e. base or mean.

5