clam

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to gather clams, by digging in the sand by the ocean

   I like to clam when I am at the beach.

2. 2
   noun

   A bivalve mollusk of many kinds, especially those that are edible; for example soft-shell clams (Mya arenaria), hard clams (Mercenaria mercenaria), sea clams or hen clams (Spisula solidissima), and other species, possibly originally applied to clams of species Tridacna gigas, a huge East Indian bivalve.

   My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.

3. 3
   noun

   A dollar.

   Those sneakers cost me fifty clams!

4. 4
   noun

   A Scientologist.

   So the clams have John Travolta, Tom Cruise, et al in their hot li'l ol'P-R hands […]

5. 5
   noun

   A wrong or misplaced note.

   You had too many fucking days off, and you think this is a game? You think I'm the only one that's going to work up there while you motherfuckers sit out there and clam all over this fucking joint? What do you think this is anyhow? What kind of playing do you think this is? What kind of miscues do you call this?... You afraid you won't be heard? Everybody can hear your fucking clams out there. You don't need a mic for that. You taking up too much time blowing what? Shit! You stand out here all fucking night trying to blow your brains out. When it comes time to play, what do you play? Clams?! You got nowhere to fucking go the next day. I hear one fucking clam from anybody, you've had it! One clam and this whole fucking band is through tonight. Try me!

6. 6
   noun

   mouth (Now found mostly in the expression shut one's clam)

   Why, he hasn't opened his clam since that morning in your room. I expected he would hold forth on every and all occasions.

7. 7
   noun

   A crash or clangor made by ringing all the bells of a chime at once.

   By the bells standing too long in leading compass, the rest are thrown and jumbled together; whereby claps and clams so unpleasing to the hearers are occasion'd.

8. 8
   verb

   To produce, in bellringing, a clam or clangor; to cause to clang.

   When they [bells] lie fifths thus 1 5 2 6 3 7 4 8, 'tis then most pleasant and excellent music to clam them; that is, the two notes of each concord to strike together, and if they be clam'd true the eight bells will strike like four, but with far greater musick and harmony.

Etymology

From Middle English clam (“pincers, vice, clamp”), from Old English clam (“bond, fetter, grip, grasp”), from Proto-West Germanic *klammjan (“press, squeeze together”). The sense “dollar” may allude to wampum. The sense "Scientologist" alludes to the Scientologist belief that human thetans (souls) previously inhabited clams.