dam

Noun (1)

dam (plural dams)

1. A structure placed across a flowing body of water to stop the flow or part of the flow, generally for purposes such as retaining or diverting some of the water or retarding the release of accumulated water to avoid abrupt flooding.
   • A dam is often an essential source of water to farmers of hilly country.
   • Nothing could be more business-like than the construction of the stout dams, and nothing more gently rural than the limpid lakes, with the grand old forest trees marshalled round their margins[…]1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad
2. The water reservoir resulting from placing such a structure.
   • Boats may only be used at places set aside for boating on the dam.
3. A device to prevent a tooth from getting wet during dental work, consisting of a rubber sheet held with a band.

   Synonyms:

   dental dam, oral dam

4. (Australia, South Africa) A reservoir.
5. A firebrick wall, or a stone, which forms the front of the hearth of a blast furnace.

Verb

dam (third-person singular simple present dams, present participle damming, simple past and past participle dammed)

1. (transitive) To block the flow of water.
   • Home I vvould go, / But that my Dores are hatefull to my eyes. / Fill'd and damm'd up vvith gaping Creditors, / VVatchfull as Fovvlers vvhen their Game vvill ſpring; […]1682, Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv’d, or, A Plot Discover’d. A Tragedy. […], London: […] Jos[eph] Hindmarsh […], →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 4

Noun (2)

dam (plural dams)

1. Female parent, mother, generally regarding breeding of animals.
   • More dear […] than younglings to their dam.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 52
   • The dam runs lowing up and down, / Looking the way her harmless young one went.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
2. A kind of crowned piece in the game of draughts.

Noun (3)

dam (plural dams)

1. (India, historical) An obsolete Indian copper coin, equal to a fortieth of a rupee.
   • […] A small Indian coin; whence comes the saying "I don't care a dam for you," that is I don't value you a farthing, and not as generally given, "I don't care a damn" or a "curse for you." [Possibly a folk etymology.]1839, William Holloway, A General Dictionary of Provincialisms, Written with a View to Rescue from Oblivion the Fast Fading Relics of By-gone Days, Lewes, East Sussex: Sussex Press: Printed and...
2. (historical) A former coin of Nepal, 128 of which were worth one mohar.

Interjection

1. (historical, pronunciation-spelling, slang) Damn.

Adjective

dam (not comparable)

1. (historical, pronunciation-spelling, slang) Damn.
   • Do not get too caught up in individual campism. The Most-High sent your spirits back on earth to fix yourselves, come together and wake up our people, so do your dam job and stop letting your fleshly desires control you.2020, Jacie Rowe III, White Lies, Black Truth, The Lost Light, page 196

Noun (4) capitalized: DAM

DAM (uncountable)

1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of digital asset management.