Obs. exc. dial. Forms: 4–5 clammen, 6–8 clamm, (7 clambe), 6– clam. [First found in 14–15th c., when it interchanged with cleme, OE. clǽman, to smear, anoint, daub, mod. dial. cleam. Of the latter, the pa. t. clǽmde prob. gave ME. clamde (like cladde, ladde, spradde, lafte, etc.), whence was educed a present clam perh. helped by CLAM a. and by CLAMMY. The forms clame, claim, which (with cleam) are still found in northern dial., are treated under CLEAM v., q.v. for ulterior derivation.]
1. trans. To smear, daub or spread unctuous matter on; to smear, anoint or daub with.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., II. 93 (MS. a. 1400). Crist … clammyde [v.r. clemed] cley on his eyen.
1584. R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., XII. xvi. 208. She clamd it [a sieve] with clay, and brought in … water.
[1671–. Clame, claim: see CLEAM.]
1884. Cheshire Gloss., Clamme or clame, to plaister over.
2. To bedaub (a thing) so that it sticks; to clog or entangle with or in anything sticky; to stick or plaster up, together, etc.
1598. Florio, Abbituminare, to bepitch, to cement or clam together.
1626. T. H., trans. Caussin’s Holy Crt., 356. Passe ouer it, as a wary Bee ouer hony, not clamming your wings.
1694. R. L’Estrange, Fables, 346. The sprigs were all daubed with lime, and the poor Wretches clamm’d and taken.
1713. Warder, True Amazons, 133–4. They will be clamm’d in it [the Honey].
fig. 1683. Mrs. Behn, Young King, II. iii. He that can … clam me in that love by every look.
3. To clog or choke up (by anything sticking in).
1527. Andrew, Brunswyke’s Distyll. Waters, G iij. The same water is good for them that hath clammed hym selfe or an other.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (1871), 13. The western gales in Holland … swept the sands so before them, that they have choaked or clammed up the … door of the Rhine.
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv. (1746), 219. Utterly unwholesome, claming the Stomach, stopping the Veins and Passages.
1876. Whitby Gloss., Clamm’d up, (an orifice) stopped up by anything glutinous, as the throat with phlegm.
1888. Berkshire Gloss. (E. D. S.), Clammed, chocked up by over-filling.
b. fig. To cloy.
a. 1670. Hacket, Abp. Williams, I. (1692), 52. Engaging … not to clam his Taste with the smallest Collection of Flattery.
4. intr. To be clammy, or moist and sticky; to stick, adhere, as glutinous things.
1610. Markham, Masterp., I. liv. 117. The dough would so sticke and clambe in the horses mouth.
1690. Dryden, Amphitryon, III. i. A chilling Sweat, a damp of Jealousie, Hangs on my Brows, and clams upon my Limbs.
1877. N. W. Linc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Clam, to stick, to adhere as sheets of wet paper do to each other.
Hence Clammed ppl. a., Clamming vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1641. Milton, Animadv. (1851), 220. [We] have our earthly apprehensions so clamm’d and furr’d with the old levin.
1683. Tryon, Way to Health, 201. The finest of the Flour … is of a glutinating, clamming, and obstructing Nature.
