jam

See also: jamb, JAM, jám, -jam, and Jam.

English

Marmalade, a type of jam, spread on a piece of bread
A strawberry jam and peanut butter sandwich

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /d͡ʒæm/
  • Audio (RP)(file)
    - fruit spread
  • Audio (RP)(file)
    - verb
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (UK)(file)
  • Rhymes: -æm
  • Homophones: jamb, gem

Etymology 1

Noun

jam (countable and uncountable, plural jams)

  1. A sweet mixture of fruit boiled with sugar and allowed to congeal. Often spread on bread or toast or used in jam tarts.
  2. (countable) A difficult situation.
    • 1928, Upton Sinclair, Boston
      It's a blackmail ring, and the district attorneys get a share of the loot. […] Well, they got him in the same kind of jam, and soaked him to the tune of three hundred and eighty-six thousand.
    • 1975, Bob Dylan, Tangled Up in Blue
      She was married when we first met
      Soon to be divorced
      I helped her out of a jam, I guess
      But I used a little too much force.
  3. (countable) Blockage, congestion.
    A traffic jam caused us to miss the game's first period.
    a jam of logs in a river
  4. (countable, popular music) An informal, impromptu performance or rehearsal.
  5. (countable, by extension, informal) A song; a track.
    • 2001, Jet (volume 100, number 22, page 25)
      The result is an outstanding assortment of sophisticated, sexy and hip-hop-tinged R&B grooves, ballads and party jams.
  6. (countable, by extension) An informal event where people brainstorm and collaborate on projects.
    We came up with some new ideas at the game jam.
  7. (countable, baseball) A difficult situation for a pitcher or defending team.
    He's in a jam now, having walked the bases loaded with the cleanup hitter coming to bat.
  8. (countable, basketball) A forceful dunk.
  9. (countable, roller derby) A play during which points can be scored.
    Toughie scored four points in that jam.
  10. (climbing, countable) Any of several maneuvers requiring wedging of an extremity into a tight space.
    I used a whole series of fist and foot jams in that crack.
  11. (Britain, slang) luck.
    He's got more jam than Waitrose.
  12. (slang) sexual relations or the contemplation of them.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
See also

Verb

jam (third-person singular simple present jams, present participle jamming, simple past and past participle jammed)

  1. To get something stuck in a confined space.
    My foot got jammed in a gap between the rocks.
    Her poor little baby toe got jammed in the door.
    I jammed the top knuckle of my ring finger.
    • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, London: W. Taylor, 3rd edition, 1719, p. 226,
      The Ship, which by its Building was Spanish, stuck fast, jaum’d in between two Rocks; all the Stern and Quarter of her was beaten to Pieces with the Sea […]
  2. To brusquely force something into a space; cram, squeeze.
    They temporarily stopped the gas tank leak by jamming a piece of taffy into the hole.
    The rush-hour train was jammed with commuters.
    • 1779, George Colman, Farewell Epilogue, spoken at Wynnstay after the representation of Cymbeline and The Spanish Barber, 22 January, 1779, in Prose on Several Occasions: Accompanied with Some Pieces in Verse, London: T. Cadel, 1787, Volume 3, p. 283,
      Since the new post-horse tax, I dare engage
      That some folks here have travell’d in the Stage:
      Jamm’d in at midnight, in cold winter weather,
      The crouded passengers are glew’d together.
  3. To cause congestion or blockage. Often used with "up"
    A single accident can jam the roads for hours.
  4. To block or confuse a broadcast signal.
  5. (baseball) To throw a pitch at or near the batter's hands.
    Jones was jammed by the pitch.
  6. (music) To play music (especially improvisation as a group, or an informal unrehearsed session).
  7. To injure a finger or toe by sudden compression of the digit's tip.
    When he tripped on the step he jammed his toe.
  8. (roller derby) To attempt to score points.
    Toughie jammed four times in the second period.
  9. (nautical) To bring (a vessel) so close to the wind that half her upper sails are laid aback.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of W. C. Russell to this entry?)
  10. (Canada, informal) To give up on a date or some joint endeavour; stand up, chicken out, jam out.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

Persian or Hindi, meaning "garment, robe"; related to pajamas.

Noun

jam (plural jams)

  1. (dated) A kind of frock for children.

Etymology 3

Noun

jam (plural jams)

  1. (mining) Alternative form of jamb

Anagrams

Albanian

Etymology

From Proto-Albanian *es-mi, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésmi (“I am, I exist”), identical with Ancient Greek εἰμί (eimí), Sanskrit अस्मि (ásmi), English am. Aorist qeshë from Proto-Indo-European *kwel- (“to turn, revolve”), with a semantic development similar to Germanic *werdan (“to become”), from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn”)[1].

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /jam/

Verb

jam (first-person singular past tense qeshë, participle qenë)

  1. to be

Conjugation

References

  1. ↑ Orel, Vladimir (1998), “jam”, in Albanian Etymological Dictionary, Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill, page 156

Czech

Noun

jam m

  1. yam (any Dioscorea vine)

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ʒɛm]
  • audio(file)

Noun

jam m (plural jams, diminutive jammetje n)

  1. jam (conserved fruits where no parts of fruits are visible anymore)

Esperanto

Etymology

From Latin iam.

Adverb

jam

  1. already

Indonesian

Etymology

From Malay jam, from Sanskrit याम (yāma, “time”).

Noun

jam

  1. hour (Time period of sixty minutes)
  2. clock (instrument to measure or keep track of time)

Interlingua

Adverb

jam (not comparable)

  1. already

Javanese

Etymology

Ultimately from Sanskrit याम (yāma)

Noun

jam

  1. clock

Latgalian

Pronoun

jam m

  1. (third-person singular) dative form of jis.
    Vys jam nazkas natai. 'It's never good enough for him. (He's never satisfied.)'
    Es jam atsaceju par reizi. 'I replied to him right away.'
    Jam daguoja laistīs paceli nu sātys. 'He had to leave his home.'

Latin

Adverb

jam (not comparable)

  1. Alternative form of iam

References

Lithuanian

Pronoun

jam m

  1. (third-person singular) dative form of jis.
    • 2007, Jurga (Jurga Šeduikytė), Angelai
      Jo balti sparnai man tinka
      Jam savo šarvus dovanoju
      His white wings suit me
      I present to him my armor

Malay

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Sanskrit याम (yāma, “time”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [d͡ʒam]
  • Rhymes: -d͡ʒam, -am

Noun

jam (Jawi spelling جم, plural jam-jam)

  1. hour (Time period of sixty minutes)
  2. clock (instrument to measure or keep track of time)

North Frisian

Etymology

Cognate with West Frisian jimme

Pronoun

jam

  1. you (plural)
  2. your (plural)

Slovene

Noun

jam

  1. genitive dual and plural of jama

Welsh

Noun

jam m (plural jamiau)

  1. jam

West Frisian

Noun

jam c (plural jams)

  1. jam, fruit preserves
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