clam up
clam up verb: to become silent; to stop talking.
Verb
clam up (third-person singular simple present clams up, present participle clamming up, simple past and past participle clammed up)
- To become silent; to stop talking.
- Maybe he … or she … was a witness who refused to clam up … a whistle blower …1986, Paul Chadwick, Concrete: Under the Desert Stars, Dark Horse Books
- Teenagers' father. Alright, Matt, I think you've made your point.
Matt Foley: Dad, I sincerely wish you'd do everyone a great service, and clam up!1993, “Matt Foley: A Scary Story on Halloween”, in Saturday Night Live, season 19, spoken by Matt Foley (Chris Farley)
- Synonyms:
- shut up, shut up like a clam
- To make or become clammy.
Synonyms of clam up
Antonyms
Forms of clam up
| third-person singular present | clams up |
|---|---|
| present participle | clamming up |
| past participle | clammed up |
| past | clammed up |
Origin of clam up
By analogy with a clam closing itself. Compare clamshell (“mouth”), clam (“mouth”).
Questions about clam up
- What does clam up mean?
- Clam up means to become silent; to stop talking.
- What part of speech is clam up?
- Clam up is a verb.
- What is the past tense of clam up?
- The past tense of clam up is clammed up.
Words near clam up in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: clam up (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-clam up.ogg.
Cite this entry: “clam up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/clam_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.