Forms: 1 cremmian, 4–5 crom, 4–7 cramm(e, 5 cremmyn, 6 cromme, 6–7 crame, 7 crambe, 7–8 cramb, 6– cram. [OE. crammian (:—*krammôjan), deriv. of the strong vb. crimman, cram(m), crummen to insert; cf. OHG. krimman, chrimman to press, pinch, scratch, and its deriv. Ger. dial. krammen to claw, also ON. kremja (kramði, kramið or kramd) to squeeze, bruise, pinch (:—*kram(m)jan), Sw. krama to squeeze, press, strain. The primary meaning was ‘to press, squeeze’: cf. also CRAMP. The 15th c. variant cremm-yn appears to be from Norse.
Some of the dialects preserve senses more akin to those in the continental languages; cf. the following:
1866. Edmondston, Shetland Gloss., Cram, to scratch severely with the finger-nails.
1886. S. W. Linc. Gloss., Cram, to crumple, tumble, disarrange. ‘Look how my dress is crammed.’]
1. trans. To fill (a receptacle) with more than it properly or conveniently holds, by force or compression; less strictly, to fill to repletion, fill quite full or overfull, ‘pack.’ Const. with.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram. (Z.), 190. Farcio, ic crammiʓe oððe fylle.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pard. Prol., 20. My longe cristal stoones I-crammed ful of cloutes and of boones.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 101. Cremmyn, or stuffyn, farcino, repleo.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 54. Thee gats ar cramd with an armye.
1635. Pagitt, Christianogr., 231. Till hee had drained them dry to crambe his own Coffers.
1662. Pepys, Diary, 31 Dec. The room where the ball was to be, crammed with fine ladies.
1812. Examiner, 13 Sept., 592/2. Every avenue leading to the fair was crammed.
1889. Boy’s Own Paper, 17 Aug., 730/2. The boisterous party of us that crammed a double compartment.
b. intr. with passive sense. rare.
a. 1763. J. Byrom, Poems (1773), I. 11. The Coach was full as it could cram.
2. esp. To feed with excess of food (spec. poultry, etc., to fatten them for the table); to overfeed, stuff, fill to satiety.
c. 1325. Pol. Songs (Camden), 238. The knave crommeth is crop.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. I. 42. Tyl hure bagge and hure bely were bretful ycrammyd.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., IV. (1586), 169. [Pigeons] must be crammed in such sort as you cramme Capons.
1630. Brathwait, Eng. Gentlem. (1641), 86. Wee were not created onely to cramme our selves.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., Introd. Those that feed themselves abroad … are of better nourishment, than such as are cram’d in a coop.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, III. 144. The infant … is overfed, stuffed and crammed with paps and puddings.
1830. Scott, Jrnl., 27 June. The little garden where I was crammed with gooseberries.
1837. M. Donovan, Dom. Econ., II. 75. In the Society Islands, dogs were crammed, as poultry with us, for the sake of improving their flesh.
b. intr. (for refl.) To eat greedily or to excess, to stuff oneself; to ‘stuff.’
1609. Rowlands, Knave of Clubbes, 24. And so againe crammes in, As if a fortnight he had fasting bin.
1634. Heywood, Witches of Lanc., IV. Wks. 1874, IV. 219. Such a bevy of beldames did I never behold; and cramming like so many Cormorants.
1634. Milton, Comus, 779. Swinish gluttony Ne’er looks to Heav’n amidst his gorgeous feast, But with besotted base ingratitude Cramms, and blasphemes his feeder.
1785–95. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Lousiad, II. Wks. I. 235. Madam Schwellenberg, inclined to cram, Was wond’rous busy o’er a plate of ham.
3. fig. (trans.) To fill quite full, overfill (with facts, knowledge, etc.).
1581. Mulcaster, Positions, iv. (1887), 22. Neither stuffe the bodye, nor choke the conceit, which it lightly doeth, when it is to much crammed.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., I. ii. 91. Cram’s with prayse, and make’s As fat as tame things.
1774. Foote, Cozeners, I. Wks. 1799, II. 157. He never crams congregations, gives them more than they can carry away.
1828. Scott, Tales Grandf., Ser. I. xxxii. (1841), 125/2. A boy of fourteen … with as much learning as two excellent schoolmasters could cram him with.
1871. Napheys, Prev. & Cure Dis., 34–5. Text-books … crammed with useless statements.
4. To thrust, force, stuff, crowd (anything) into a receptacle or space, etc., which it overfills, down any one’s throat, etc.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 4455. Þus make ȝe vessels … to ȝoure foule corses, To crom in ȝoure cariouns.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Plantations (Arb.), 533. Cramme not in People, by sending too fast, Company, after Company; But rather hearken how they waste, and send Supplies proportionably.
1692. Locke, Toleration, i. Wks. 1727, II. 243. Cram a Medicine down a sick Man’s Throat.
1707. J. Stevens, trans. Quevedo’s Com. Wks. (1709), 348. Do not … cramb your your Hands into your Pocket.
1842. S. Lover, Handy Andy, i. 6. Andy … was obliged to cram his face into his hat to hide the laugh.
1865. Trollope, Belton Est., xiv. 166. He was … cramming his shirts into his portmanteau.
b. fig.
1528. Tindale, Obed. Chr. Man, 97 b. Though he never cromme hys synne in to the prestes eare?
1610. Shaks., Temp., II. i. 106. You cram these words into mine eares, against The stomacke of my sense.
1668. Ld. Chaworth, in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 11. I would advise you to eate your words … else … Ile crame them downe your throate with my sworde.
1711. Hearne, Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), III. 200. To have an Oath of Abjuration cramm’d down their Throats.
1751. Paltock, P. Wilkins (1884), I. 14. I had but little heart to my nouns and pronouns, which now began to be crammed upon me.
1863. Holland, Lett. Joneses, xix. 275. [To] cram a lie down the public throat.
1879. Green, Read. Eng. Hist., Pref. To cram as many facts as possible into their pages.
c. intr. (for refl.) To press, crowd. rare.
c. 1752. Scotland’s Glory, 69. A crowd then crams into the Kirk.
5. slang. To make (a person) ‘swallow,’ i.e., believe, false or exaggerated statements. Cf. colloq. to stuff (a person) up; and see CRAM sb. 3, CRAMMER 3.
1794. Gentl. Mag., 1085 (Farmer). I lately came over him for a good round sum … Luckily, I crammed him so well that [etc.].
1822. Scott, Nigel, xviii. Ridiculous tales … with … which … Richie Moniplies had been crammed. Ibid. (1825), Jrnl. (1890), I. 13. He crammed people, as it is termed, about duels, etc., which never existed.
1844. Thackeray, Wand. Fat Contrib., ii. Poor Caledonian youth! I have been cramming him with the most dreadful lies.
6. colloq. To prepare (a person) for an examination or special purpose, in a comparatively short time, by storing his memory with information, not so much with a view to real learning as to the temporary object aimed at.
Orig. University slang; always depreciative or hostile.
[1741. Watts, Improv. Mind, I. iv. § 10. As a man may be eating all day, and for want of digestion is never nourished; so these endless readers may cram themselves in vain with intellectual food, and without real improvement of their minds, for want of digesting it by proper reflections.]
1825. Fonblanque, in Westm. Rev., IV. 394. An uninstructed man, when crammed for an occasion.
1827. Whateley, Logic (1837), p. xxvi. By learning questions and answers by rote,—in the cant phrase of undergraduates, by getting crammed.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., xi. (1889), 94. He had been well crammed in his science.
1864. Knight, Passages Wrkg. Life, II. ix. 179. Cramming Ministers and Members of Parliament with statistical facts.
1879. Daily News, 17 Sept., 3/5. Their boys had not been crammed in two or three days, but had diligently studied their subjects.
b. To ‘get up’ (a subject) hastily for an occasion, without any regard to its permanent retention or educative influence.
1853. Lytton, My Novel, VII. xxi. Randal had spent the afternoon in cramming the subject from agricultural journals and Parliamentary reports.
1868. M. Pattison, Academ. Org., v. 184. Wasting six months in cramming up a minimum of forgetable matter.
1875. Helps, Anim. & Mast., vi. 149. Discumbering our minds of what we have crammed up for the occasion.
c. absol. or intr.
1810. E. Tatham, New Addr. Free Members Convoc. Oxford, 21. The business of cramming preparatory to Public Examination.
1875. ‘A. R. Hope,’ My Schoolboy Friends, 150. ‘What are you cramming at?’ said he.
1881. Emma J. Worboise, Sissie, xv. She can cram for an examination.
7. trans. To urge on forcibly (a horse). slang.
c. 1830. C. Wicksted, Cheshire Hunt, iv. in R. Eg.-Warburton, Hunt. Songs (1883), 227. Who’s cramming his mare up yon steep rotten bank?
1840. E. E. Napier, Scenes & Sports For. Lands, I. i. 15. Getting to the bottom of the nullah as best I might, I crammed my steed up the opposite sides.
1852. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour, lxviii. 379. Taking his horse back a few paces, Mr. Sponge crammed him manfully at the palings, and got over with a rap.
8. intr. To thrust oneself in, intrude. dial.
1881. Leicester Gloss., Cram, to intrude. ‘My Papa doesn’t like me to cram in that way.’
