DAM • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Dam

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noun

Dam n.

A female parent; used of beasts, especially of quadrupeds; sometimes applied in contempt to a human mother. "Our sire and dam, now confined to horses, are a relic of this age (13th century)...Dame is used of a hen; we now make a great difference between dame and dam." "The dam runs lowing up and down, Looking the way her harmless young one went."

A king or crowned piece in the game of draughts.

Dam n.

A barrier to prevent the flow of a liquid; esp., a bank of earth, or wall of any kind, as of masonry or wood, built across a water course, to confine and keep back flowing water.

(Metal.) A firebrick wall, or a stone, which forms the front of the hearth of a blast furnace.

Dam plate (Blast Furnace), an iron plate in front of the dam, to strengthen it.

verb

Dam v. t. (past & past part. dammed; pres. part. damming)

To obstruct or restrain the flow of, by a dam; to confine by constructing a dam, as a stream of water; generally used with in or up. "I'll have the current in this place dammed up." "A weight of earth that dams in the water."

To shut up; to stop up; to close; to restrain. "The strait pass was dammed With dead men hurt behind, and cowards."

To dam out, to keep out by means of a dam.

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Etymology of 'Dam'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Dam" Quotes from Famous Books

... said in a mysterious whisper, for old age and long services in my family have given him privileges which I have neither the power nor the inclination to check—'Massa Geral,' pulling me by the collar—'I dam ib he no go sleep when him ought to hab all him eyes about him—him pretty fellow to keep watch when Yankee pass him in ...

— The Canadian Brothers - or The Prophecy Fulfilled • John Richardson

... night he then laid down near his camp-fire, where he could get a fair view of his surroundings. The shades of evening soon gathered around him. The stars shot forth in beauty one by one, and the evening dew fell in silence. Thinking the young panthers might return for their dam, he had placed her in a sleeping position in a conspicuous place, to draw them to her side if they came within sight. Mayall waited in sleepless anxiety, thinking that when the embers of his fire ...

— The Forest King - Wild Hunter of the Adaca • Hervey Keyes

... thirteen inches in length apiece, which played to and fro in the grass one with another, till some of them espied me. So soon therefore as they saw my face they ran again into the mouth of their dam, whom I killed, and then found each of them shrouded in a distinct cell or pannicle in her belly, much like unto a soft white jelly, which maketh me to be of the opinion that our adder is the viper ...

— Chronicle and Romance (The Harvard Classics Series) • Jean Froissart, Thomas Malory, Raphael Holinshed

... blood But to corrupt the author of my blood To be his scandalous and vile soliciter? No marvel though the branches be infected, When poison hath encompassed the roots; No marvel though the leprous infant die, When the stern dam envenometh the dug. Why then, give sin a passport to offend, And youth the dangerous rein of liberty; Blot out the strict forbidding of the law; And cancel every canon that prescribes A shame for shame or penance for offence. No, let ...

— A Study of Shakespeare • Algernon Charles Swinburne

... his voice was drowned in a deafening explosion, and the whole landscape about him seemed afire. In the semi-darkness hundreds of protectors could be seen struggling in the rushing water, moving stones and building a dam. Waldmeer again faced his far-off audience and spoke:—"Prince Marentel has turned the course of the stream. All now depends on the success or failure of his final test with explosives, which will take place ...

— The Land of the Changing Sun • William N. Harben

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