adam

Noun

adam (plural adams)

1. (US, humorous) The day or night before an eve; two days or nights before a holiday, most commonly Christmas.

Proper noun capitalized: Adam

UK/ˈædəm/British/ˈadəm/

Adam (plural Adams)

1. The first man and the progenitor of the human race.
   • And Adam called his wiues name Eue, because she was the mother of all liuing.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 3:20
   • Say Goddeſs, what enſu'd when Raphael, / The affable Arch-angel, had forewarn'd / Adam by dire example to beware / Apoſtaſie,1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
2. A male given name from Hebrew.
   • In his tall stalwartness Adam Bede was a Saxon, and justified his name; but the jet-black hair, made the more noticeable by its contrast with the light paper cap, and the keen glance of the dark eyes that shone from under strongly marked, proninent, and mobile eyebrows, indicated a mixture of...1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “The Workshop”, in Adam Bede […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book first, page 3
   • Since then I have deciphered some more of Adam’s hieroglyphics, and think he has now become sufficiently important as a public character to justify this publication.1904, Mark Twain, Extracts from Adam's Diary
3. (figuratively) Original sin or human frailty.
4. (usually) Jesus Christ, whose sacrifice, in Christian theology, makes possible the forgiveness of Adam's original sin.
   • And so it is written: The first man Adam was made a liuing soule, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 15:45
   • Second Adam from above,
     Reinstate us in thy love.1739, Charles Wesley, Hark! the Herald Angels Sing
5. Designating a neoclassical style of furniture and architecture in the style of Robert and James Adam.
   • Inside were six-panelled doors, wide floor-boards, a curving colonial staircase, white Adam-period mantels, and a rear set of rooms three steps below the general level.1936, HP Lovecraft, The Haunter of the Dark
   • McIntyre's best pieces, such as the fireplace in the Otis house, managed to convey both an opulent warmth and a restrained elegance, and compares favorably with the artistic saturnalia of an Adam fireplace.2001, Norman K. Risjord, Representative Americans: The Revolutionary Generation, page 164
6. An English surname originating as a patronymic.
7. A Scottish surname originating as a patronymic.
8. A French surname originating as a patronymic.
9. A German surname originating as a patronymic.
10. (slang) The drug ecstasy.
    • I prefer to call it "Adam." "Ecstasy" is a beautiful word, but I think Ecstasy is a word more often used by people taking it for thrills.1990, Jerome Beck, The MDMA Controversy: Contexts of Use and Social Control, page 131
    • I heard people say they were taking "Adam." Is that the same drug or something different? Ecstasy goes by many different names […]2008, Jennifer Wider, The Doctor's Complete College Girls' Health Guide, page 94