Lam

[lam] /læm/ Slang.

verb (used with object), lammed, lamming.
1.
to beat; thrash.
verb (used without object), lammed, lamming.
2.
to beat; strike; thrash (usually followed by out or into).
[lam] /læm/ Slang.
noun
1.
a hasty escape; flight.
verb (used without object), lammed, lamming.
2.
to run away quickly; escape; flee:
I’m going to lam out of here as soon as I’ve finished.
Idioms
3.
on the lam, escaping, fleeing, or hiding, especially from the police:
He’s been on the lam ever since he escaped from jail.
4.
take it on the lam, to flee or escape in great haste:
The swindler took it on the lam and was never seen again.
[lahm, lam] /lɑm, læm/
noun
1.
Wifredo
[wi-frey-doh] /wɪˈfreɪ doʊ/ (Show IPA), or Wilfredo
[wil-frey-doh] /wɪlˈfreɪ doʊ/ (Show IPA), 1902–82, Cuban painter in Europe.
[lahm] /lɑm/
noun
1.
the 23rd letter of the Arabic alphabet.
1.
Lamentations.
1.
.
/læm/
verb (slang) lams, lamming, lammed
1.
(transitive) to thrash or beat
2.
(intransitive; usually foll by into or out) to make a sweeping stroke or blow
/læm/
noun
1.
a sudden flight or escape, esp to avoid arrest
2.
on the lam

verb lams, lamming, lammed
3.
(intransitive) to escape or flee
abbreviation
1.
Lamentations
n.

“flight,” as in on the lam, 1897, from a U.S. slang verb meaning “to run off” (1886), of uncertain origin, perhaps somehow from the first element of lambaste, which was used in British student slang for “beat” since 1590s; if so, it would give the word the same etymological sense as the slang expression beat it.

verb

Related Terms

on the lam, take it on the lam

[1886+ Underworld; ultimately fr British sense ”beat,” found by 1596, hence the same semantically as beat it]
lymphagioleiomyomatosis
laminated
Lamentations
see: on the lam