clam

Etymology 1

From Middle English clam (“pincers, vice, clamp”), from Old English clamm (“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.

noun

1. 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 clam (Spisula solidissima), and other species. The name is said to have been given originally to the 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. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 3, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
   Long as I have my clams I don't give a damn about revolution / Long as I have my rice I don't have to think twice about a solution 1970, “Cherrystones”, in Outlaw, performed by Eugene McDaniels
2. Strong pincers or forceps.
3. A kind of vise, usually of wood.
4. (US, slang, chiefly in the plural) A dollar.
   Those sneakers cost me fifty clams!
   The network canceled—nonco-operation their legal shysters said. Suing me, for, for ten million clams, damages to sponsors, agencies. 1973, Lucas Webb, Stribling, page 188
5. (slang, derogatory) A Scientologist.
   So the clams have John Travolta, Tom Cruise, et al in their hot li'l ol'P-R hands […] 23 February 1998, jesparolini, “CO$ Celebrities: USEFUL IDIOTS”, in alt.religion.scientology (Usenet)
6. (slang, vulgar) A vagina.
7. (slang) In musicians' parlance, a wrong or misplaced note.
8. (informal) One who clams up; a taciturn person, one who refuses to speak.
9. (dated, US, slang) 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. 1900, Burt L. Standish, Frank Merriwell's Tricks: Or True Friends and False
   Jason wouldn't shut his clam about the invaders. 2017, Benjamin Kane Ethridge, Dungeon Brain

verb

1. To dig for clams.

Etymology 2

noun

1. 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. 1702, Campanologia Improved

verb

1. 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. 1702, Campanologia Improved

Etymology 3

From Middle English clammen, clemen (“to smear, bedaub”), from Old English clǣman (“to smear, bedaub”). Cognate with German klamm (“clammy”). See also clammy (“damp, cold and sticky”) and clem (“to adhere, stick, plug (a hole)”).

adj

1. (obsolete) clammy.
   Ice is said to be clam, when beginning to melt with the sun or otherwise, and not easy to be slid upon. 1808, John Jamieson, An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language

noun

1. clamminess; moisture

verb

1. To be moist or glutinous; to stick; to adhere.
2. To clog, as with glutinous or viscous matter.

Etymology 4

noun

1. (rowing) Alternative form of CLAM

Etymology 5

noun

1. Alternative form of clem (“to starve”)