Word.ws English Dictionary

clams up

US/ˈklæmˈzʌp/

clams up is the third-person singular simple present indicative of clam up.

Meaning of clam up

Verb

clam up (third-person singular simple present clams up, present participle clamming up, simple past and past participle clammed up)

  1. (informal, intransitive) 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
  2. (ambitransitive) To make or become clammy.

Questions about clams up

What is clams up the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Clams up is the third-person singular simple present indicative of clam up.
How do you pronounce clams up?
Clams up is pronounced /ˈklæmˈzʌp/ (US).

Words near clams up in the dictionary

  1. clamps off
  2. clampy
  3. clams
  4. clams casino
  5. clams oreganata
  6. clams up
  7. clamshell
  8. clamshell phone
  9. clamshell phones
  10. clamshelled
  11. clamshelling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: clams up (page history and authors); 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.

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Cite this entry: “clams up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/clams_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.