Word.ws English Dictionary

Clemson

Clemson proper noun: a surname originating as a patronymic.

Proper noun

Clemson (countable and uncountable, plural Clemsons)

  1. A surname originating as a patronymic.
  2. A city in Pickens County and Anderson County, South Carolina, United States, that is home to Clemson University.
    Synonyms:
    Calhoun
  3. (informal) Clemson University.

Verb

Clemson (third-person singular simple present Clemsons, present participle Clemsoning, simple past and past participle Clemsoned)

  1. (US, slang) To perform uncharacteristically poorly, well below expectations.
    • Anyone who was watching Saturday's loss to the Steve Spurrier-led Gamecocks surely could tell within the first quarter — if not that first failed drive — that Clemson was Clemsoning once again.2013 December 2, Chris Haire, “God doesn't like the Clemson Tigers”, in Charleston City Paper
    • At this point, it wasn’t enough to point out that Clemson had just Clemsoned in epic fashion.2014 September 21, Des Bieler, “Against Florida State, Clemson's 'Clemsoning' was the most 'Clemsoning' Clemson ever Clemsoned”, in The Washington Post

Synonyms of Clemson

Forms of Clemson

Proper noun
pluralClemsons
Verb
third-person singular presentClemsons
present participleClemsoning
past participleClemsoned
pastClemsoned

Origin of Clemson

From a short form of the personal name Clement + -son.

From the performance of the Clemson Tigers (NCAA college football), who had a history of facing weak opposition in their conference and so their record of wins led to high expectations that were not met.

Questions about Clemson

What does Clemson mean?
Clemson means a surname originating as a patronymic.
What part of speech is Clemson?
Clemson can be a proper noun or a verb.

Words near Clemson in the dictionary

  1. Clemmons
  2. Clemmonses
  3. clemmy
  4. Clemons
  5. clems
  6. Clemson
  7. Clemsoned
  8. Clemsoning
  9. Clemsonings
  10. Clemsons
  11. Clemton Park

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Clemson (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:

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