clem

See also: Clem, Clém, and Clem.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klɛm/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (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)

1. (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!"

   • 1919, Stanley J. Weyman, “IX. Old Things”, in The Great House:

     Who are half clemmed from year’s end to year’s end, and see no close to it, no hope, no finish but the pauper’s deals!

References

• The Dictionary of the Scots Language

Etymology 2

From Old English clām (“paste, mortar, mud, clay, poultice”), from Proto-West Germanic *klaim, equivalent to cloam. Similar linguistic development led to the Northumbrian pronunciation of hyem, equivalent to the RP home.

Noun

clem (plural clems)

1. (Northumberland, Geordie, Teesside, slang) A brick or stone.
2. (chiefly Hartlepool, slang, plural clem) One stone (unit of mass).
3. (Geordie, vulgar, slang) A testicle.

Synonyms

• clemmy

References

• “clem”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Etymology 3

Verb

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

1. Alternative form of clam (“to adhere”).

Anagrams

• ECML

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈt͡slɛm]

Noun

clem

1. instrumental singular of clo

Welsh

Noun

clem f (plural clemiau)

1. (usually negative) clue, idea, notion
2. A tap (a piece of metal on the front of a shoe)

Mutation

Mutated forms of clem

radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
clem	glem	nghlem	chlem

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

• D. G. Lewis, N. Lewis, editors (2005–present), “clem”, in Gweiadur: the Welsh–English Dictionary, Gwerin
• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “clem”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies