clem

See also: Clem and Clem.

English

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /klɛm/
Audio (AU) (file)
Rhymes: -ɛm

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle English *clemmen, *clammen, from Old English clemman, clæmman (“to press, surround”), from Proto-West Germanic *klammjan (“to squeeze”).

Cognate with Dutch klemmen (“to jam, pinch, stick”), German klemmen (“to jam, clamp; to be stuck, stick [to a surface]”).

Alternative forms

clam

Verb

clem (third-person singular simple present clems, present participle clemming, simple past and past participle clemmed)

(UK, dialect, transitive or intransitive) To be hungry; starve.
- 1889, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, Between Two Loves, Ch. VI, p. 110:
  " […] Here he's back home again, and without work, and without a penny, and thou knows t' little one and I were pretty well clemmed to death when thou got us a bit o' bread and meat last night. We were that!"

References

The Dictionary of the Scots Language

Etymology 2

Possibly from clementine, a small round citrus fruit.

Noun

clem (plural clems)

(Tyneside, vulgar, slang) A testicle.

References

clem in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Verb

clem (third-person singular simple present clems, present participle clemming, simple past and past participle clemmed)

Alternative form of clam (“to adhere”)

Anagrams

ECML