DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan
Dam, n.
1. 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.
2. 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.
Dam n.
1. 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. --T. L. K. Oliphant.
The dam runs lowing up and down,
Looking the way her harmless young one went. --Shak.
2. A king or crowned piece in the game of draughts.
Dam, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dammed p. pr. & vb. n. Damming.]
1. 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. --Shak.
A weight of earth that dams in the water. --Mortimer.
2. To shut up; to stop up; to close; to restrain.
The strait pass was dammed
With dead men hurt behind, and cowards. --Shak.
To dam out, to keep out by means of a dam.
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dam
n 1: a barrier constructed to contain the flow of water or to
keep out the sea [syn: dike, dyke, levee]
2: a metric unit of length equal to ten meters [syn: decameter,
dekameter, decametre, dekametre, dkm]
3: female parent of an animal especially domestic livestock
v : obstruct with, or as if with, a dam; "dam the gorges of the
Yangtse River" [syn: dam up]
[also: damming, dammed]