scram

Etymology 1

Probably either: * a clipping of scramble by apocope; or * from dialectal German schramm, the imperative singular form of schrammen (“to scratch, scrape”), from Late Middle High German schramm, schramme (“a graze, scratch”); further etymology unknown.

verb

1. (intransitive, originally US, often imperative) To leave in a hurry; to go away.
   What are you kids doing on my lawn? Scram!
   Maybe when he found that Chet's jalopy was gone, he felt he'd better scram, and forgot the coat and hat. 1927, Franklin W. Dixon [pseudonym; Leslie McFarlane], “Rival Detectives”, in The Tower Treasure (The Hardy Boys; 1), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, published 1987 (2006 printing)
   The boy who was playing glowered at the intruder and growled. "Well, scram Kibitzer; scram." 1935, Harry Carr, “So This is Los Angeles”, in Los Angeles, City of Dreams, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton-Century Company, →OCLC, page 241
   "Come on!" barked Harry. "Scram!" 23 February 1935, J. Lane Linklater, “The Signal: A Short Short Story”, in Fulton Oursler, editor, Liberty, volume 12, number 8, New York, N.Y.: Liberty Publishing, →OCLC, page 35, column 2
   Jus' go on like we was gonna buck barley the rest of our lives, then all of a sudden some day we'll go get our pay an' scram outta here. 1937, John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, published 1994
   "You scram out of here!" she admonished me fiercely. "Get out, or I'll scream so loud I'll wake the whole house up! You—you Peeping Tom!" 1943, Hans Natonek, “The Affair of the Semi-private Bathroom”, in Barthold Fles, transl., edited by Sugden Tilley, In Search of Myself, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, part 2 (The Year before the Decision), page 89
   One day he packs in here with a new convertible, tells me he's moving out and scrams. Never give me a dime. 1950, Mickey Spillane, My Gun is Quick, New York, N.Y.: Signet, New American Library, published 2014
   George was going to Haiti and he knew Lee would feel that the one man whgo took an interest in him was scramming out the door. 1988, Don DeLillo, Libra, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, published 2006
   [T]wo vampires had picked up the guy who needed a new face, and they scrammed. 2005 July, MaryJanice Davidson, chapter 28, in Undead and Unappreciated (Berkley Sensation), mass-market edition, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Books, published December 2005, page 225

noun

1. (MLE, slang) A gun, firearm.
   My manager says I'm stupid for still rollin' with a scram I hate explainin' myself and I don't think he'll understand 2023-06-18, “100mph Freestyle x3”, Clavish (lyrics), 1:12

Etymology 2

Uncertain; the verb is possibly derived from etymology 1. It has been suggested that the word is an acronym for phrases like “safety control rod actuator mechanism”, “safety control rod axe man”, and “safety control rods activation mechanism”, but these are most likely backronyms. The noun is probably derived from the verb.

verb

1. (transitive) To shut down (a nuclear reactor or, by extension, some other thing) for safety reasons, usually because of an emergency.
   The NCR Nuclear Regulatory Commission] further demands the plant conform to all the safety requirements put into effect during construction. This means constant re-design. There must also be several ways to scram (emergency shut down) the reactor. Some of these are automatic and some are manual. 1976 December, Randy Warsaw, “Fermi II – A Plant Tour”, in Ray Barry, editor, The Michigan Technic, volume XCV, number 3, [Ann Arbor, Mich.]: College of Engineering, University of Michigan, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 15
   Startup of reactor recirculating pump resulted in flux spike scraming plant. 1978, “Appendix II—Answers to Written Questions Posed to Nuclear Regulatory Commission before the Hearings”, in Nuclear Regulatory Commission Authorization Requests: Hearings before the Subcommittee on Energy and Power of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives, Ninety-fifth Congress, Second Session, on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Requests for an Increased Authorization for Fiscal Year 1978 and for a Fiscal Year 1979 Authorization of $330,000,000:[…] (Serial No. 95-161), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 794
   The slightest problem in a reactor will cause the control rods to plunge automatically in the uranium core at high speeds (this is called scramming the reactor) and stop the chain reaction. 1983, Michio Kaku, Jennifer Trainer, editors, Nuclear Power, Both Sides: The Best Arguments for and against the Most Controversial Technology, New York, N.Y.: W[illiam] W[arder] Norton, page 22
   Both active and manual methods scram by tripping power to a dedicated pump that unbalances the flows to the passively scram the reactor. 2000, Ralph R. Fullwood, “Analyzing Nuclear Reactor Safety Systems”, in Probabilistic Safety Assessment in the Chemical and Nuclear Industries, Boston, Mass.: Butterworth-Heinemann, section 6.1.4.3 (ABB PIUS), page 218
   The reactor was then "scramed", but the control rods did not slide back into the reactor. 22 June 2007, Samuel Upton Newtan, “Nuclear Reactor Disasters: Part I: Stationary Reactors (Non-breeders)”, in Nuclear War I and Other Major Nuclear Disasters of the 20th Century, Bloomington, Ind., Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire: AuthorHouse, page 113
   Raising group eight rods and brining a nuclear reactor fully to life for the first time in nearly ten years—everyone was so ready they were all ready to pee in their pants. Andrews did not know he could do it without SCRAMing the reactor—in other words, pushing it into an automatic shutdown that might be too little too late. 12 December 2012, D. Michael Battey, chapter 35, in Tenacity Gene, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, page 174
2. (intransitive) Of a nuclear reactor or some other thing: to shut down, usually because of an emergency.
   This shut off current to the control rod mechanism, and the reactor scrammed (shut off) automatically. 1984, Charles Perrow, “Nuclear Power as a High-risk System”, in Normal Accidents: Living with High-risk Technologies, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, published 1999, page 44
   As soon as the earthquake struck, the reactors "scrammed"—shut down automatically—as they were supposed to. 2012, Daniel Yergin, “The Urgency of Fuel Choice”, in The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World, revised edition, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, part 3 (The Electric Age), page 415
   Immediately after the earthquake, following government regulations, the remaining reactors, 1–3, automatically SCRAMed; control rods shut down sustained fission reactions. 2016, Nabil Abu el Ata, Rudolf Schmandt, “Understanding the Hidden Risk of Dynamic Complexity”, in The Tyranny of Uncertainty: A New Framework to Predict, Remediate and Monitor Risk, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, →DOI, part I (Once upon a Time), page 21

noun

1. (also attributively) A shutdown of a nuclear reactor (or, by extension, some other thing), often done rapidly due to an emergency.
   During scram operation, a scram signal de-energizes the inlet and outlet scram valves. The outlet scram valve vents the volume above the drive piston to a scram dump tank. The inlet scram valve supplies scram pressure obtained from an accumulator to the under side of the vented piston. 5 October 1960, John Roberts, S. F. Armour, “Introduction”, in T7 Tanker Locking Piston Control Rod Drive Scram Analysis (GEAP 3561), Oak Ridge, Tenn.: Office of Technical Information, United States Atomic Energy Commission, →OCLC, page 2
   Of the 14 scrams experienced, none was caused by operation exceeding the design parameters. Eight scrams occurred with the control rods withdrawn. … Six scrams occurred while the rods were inserted. Five were intentional to prevent accidental rod withdrawal, and one was the unintentional result of an instrument adjustment. 1966 fall, staff of First Atomic Ship Transport, Inc., “Operating Experience of the N.S. Savannah in Commercial Service”, in Nuclear Safety: A Quarterly Technical Progress Review, volume 8, number 1, [Oak Ridge, Tenn.]: Division of Technical Information, United States Atomic Energy Commission, →ISSN, →OCLC, section VI, page 65
   By the time scram is completed, coolant temperatures would likely be climbing due to the combination of a large heat capacity within the fuel pins and low coolant flow. 1981, Alan E. Waltar, Albert B. Reynolds, “Unprotected Transients”, in Fast Breeder Reactors (Pergamon International Library of Science, Technology, Engineering and Social Studies), New York, N.Y., Oxford, Oxfordshire: Pergamon Press, section 15-5.D (Loss of Ultimate Heat Sink), page 604
   Although fission stops almost immediately with a SCRAM, fission products in the fuel continue to release decay heat, initially about 6.5% of full reactor power. … Corresponding with the SCRAM, emergency generators were automatically activated to power electronics and cooling systems. 2016, Nabil Abu el Ata, Rudolf Schmandt, “Understanding the Hidden Risk of Dynamic Complexity”, in The Tyranny of Uncertainty: A New Framework to Predict, Remediate and Monitor Risk, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, →DOI, part I (Once upon a Time), page 21
   Other indicators can be used to measure the performance of an NPP [nuclear power plant] including the number of scrams (emergency shutdowns of a nuclear reactor), the collective dose (a measure of the total amount of effective dose multiplied by the size of the exposed population), the amount of low-level waste generated, and the fuel reliability. The number of scrams dropped from the peak of 30 in 1984 to only one in 2004 and 2–3 in the last two years. 2011, Min Lee, “The Past, Present and Future of Nuclear Power in Taiwan”, in Xu Yi-chong, editor, Nuclear Energy Development in Asia: Problems and Prospects, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, →DOI, page 171
2. The device used to shut down a nuclear reactor; also, the button or switch used to initiate a shutdown.
   Each room housing a radiation source has a red-buttoned "scram" switch on the wall. One touch of the switch and all equipment stops abruptly. 1963 June, Kenneth Calkins, “Linac and Dynamitron”, in Boeing Magazine, volume XXXIII, number 6, Seattle, Wash.: Public Relations Division, Boeing Airplane Company, →OCLC, page 6, column 2
   She watched as the Marine technical team leader pressed the red SCRAM buttons for each reactor, setting off a chorus of alarms. 1993, Tom Clancy, Marine: A Guided Tour of a Marine Expeditionary Unit, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Books, published November 1996
   In particular, measures have been taken to make the scram system more fast-operating and to exclude any possibility of its being deliberately shut off by the personnel. 1998, Vladimir M. Munipov, “Ergonomics [Disregarding Ergonomic Design Principles: Chernobyl]”, in Jeanne Mager Stellman, editor, Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety, 4th edition, volume I, Geneva: International Labour Office, page 29-96
   Today it is considered to be true that the accident paradoxically was ultimately caused by the emergency shut down of the reactor. By sending in the practically completely withdrawn scram and control rods, the reactivity of the reactor by the faulty conception of the rods was for a short time not lowered, but augmented. 2004, Dieter Berg, “Radionuclides Released into the Environment”, in Richard Tykva, Dieter Berg, editors, Man-made and Natural Radioactivity in Environmental Pollution and Radiochronology (Environmental Pollution), Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media, →DOI, page 119

Etymology 3

The verb is a variant of dialectal English scramb (“to pull or rake together with the hands; to gather a handful of something from the ground; to scratch with the claws or nails; to pull down violently; to tear off; to maul about; a handful of something from the ground”), possibly related to Dutch schrammen (“to graze, scratch”) and German schrammen (“to scratch, scrape”); see etymology 1. The noun is derived from the verb.

verb

1. (transitive, Derbyshire, Wales) To scratch (something) with claws or fingernails; to claw.
   scram … Verb. … 2. To scratch, with claws or fingernails. E.g. "It's my own fault the cat scrammed me, I was teasing it." [South Wales use]] [1996–2020, Ted Duckworth, “scram”, in A Dictionary of Slang, archived from the original on 2013-08-30
   A woman has praised firefighters and her cat for saving her life following an alleged arson attack. Two-and-a-half-year-old tortoiseshell Taffy repeatedly bit owner Tracie Horgan-Hodgkiss on the hand until she woke up when her flat filled with acrid smoke in the early hours of this morning. … "I’d like to say thank you very much to the firefighters for coming to rescue me. And I am sorry that Taffy scrammed one of them!" (Also reported as “Cat wakes woman as flat fills with smoke”", The Daily Telegraph, 21 December 2013, page 17.) 19 December 2013, Abby Bolter, “Firefighters Rescue Woman Trapped in Bridgend Flat following an Alleged Arson Attack”, in WalesOnline, archived from the original on 2013-12-24
2. (transitive, US, mining, archaic) To mine for ore on a small scale, especially from mines previously been worked on where most of the ore is believed to have been removed.
   Just west of this pit is another one, which has been nearly worked out; but three men are scramming about five tons per day in it. 1880, “Marquette Iron District”, in Annual Report of the Commissioner of Mineral Statistics of the State of Michigan, for 1879, Lansing, Mich.: W. S. George & Co.,[…], →OCLC, page 167
   Recently, Capt. Oliver, … set a couple of experienced miners to work scramming in this underground pit, when it was soon discovered that what the former mining captain had conceived to be a regular foot-wall, was, in fact, a thin shale of rock, which hid from view what now appears to be a very large body of clean blue ore. 1882, A. P. Swineford, “The Cyclops Mine”, in Annual Review of the Iron Mining and Other Industries of the Upper Peninsula for the Year Ending Dec. 31, 1881, [Marquette, Mich.]: Mining Journal, →OCLC, page 141

noun

1. (Derbyshire, Wales) A scratch, especially caused by claws or fingernails.
   scram … Noun. … 2. A scratch. [South Wales use]] [1996–2020, Ted Duckworth, “scram”, in A Dictionary of Slang, archived from the original on 2013-08-30
2. (US, mining, archaic) A mine previously worked on where most of the ore is believed to have been removed, but which is still being mined on a small scale.
   https://books.google.com/books?id=kDVBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA64 page 64 Many of these old openings still afford places where ore is mined. A man can start in almost anywhere and fine ore. There is a great deal of this "scramming" done at the Jackson. Quite a proportion of the annual product comes in this way. Not unfrequently one of these "scrams" leads to the finding of a large deposit of ore. … https://books.google.com/books?id=kDVBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA67 page 67 South from the east part of the Incline pit they have a scram of good ore which furnished a small product. 1887, Cha[rle]s D. Lawton, “The Jackson Iron Co.”; “The Cleveland Mining Co.”, in Mines and Mineral Statistics, Lansing, Mich.: Thorp & Godfrey,[…], →OCLC, pages 64 and 67
   There are numbered workings running to about 20, representing small pits and scrams, sometimes worked by contract by "scrammers." 1891, N[ewton] H[orace] Winchell, H[orace] V[aughn] Winchell, “The Chandler Mine”, in The Iron Ores of Minnesota,[…] (Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota Bulletin; no. 6), Minneapolis, Minn.: Harrison & Smith,[…], →OCLC, part II (Methods of Exploration and Mining, and Descriptions of the Various Mines), page 196

Etymology 4

Origin unknown.

verb

1. Of one's body or limbs: to become numb or stiff due to cold, lack of movement, etc.
   The bean-setters can fully appreciate the nipping, biting keenness of the air, and avow frankly, in their own peculiar idiom, "that they be pretty nigh scrammed!" 1857, Frances Freeling Broderip, “Murder Will Out. An ‘Owre True Tale.’”, in Way-side Fancies, London: Edward Moxon,[…], →OCLC, part 2, page 13
2. To be weakened by an accident, a disease, starvation, etc.
   "But they will be scrammed!^* the children will be scrammed, Mary, before morning," cried Jim, scratching his head with perplexity and distress at the very thought of two young creatures sleeping on the bare boards, in a cold garret with only a shawl to cover them. [Footnote *: Starved.] [1867], chapter I, in How Mary Edmonds Did What She Could; and What Came of it after Many Days, London: The Religious Tract Society,[…], →OCLC, pages 14–15