lam into

Verb

lam into (third-person singular simple present lams into, present participle lamming into, simple past and past participle lammed into)

1. (dated, informal) To run into (someone); to have a chance encounter with (someone).

   Synonyms:

   lace into, light into, rip into, tear into

2. (dated, informal) To attack physically.
   • Then I drove the whole lot forth, mother and daughter, lamming into them with fist and foot.1887, Benvenuto Cellini, chapter 29, in John Addington Symonds, transl., Autobiography
   • The girl stared at him for a moment thunderstruck; then she lammed into the old horse with a stick she carried in place of a whip.1900, Henry Lawson, “Andy Page's Rival”, in On the Track
3. (informal) To attack verbally.
   • But certainly those eggs we got were as fresh as if they had been new laid. Fresh! Carrying them down to the boat one of my […] chaps dropped one on a rock and it smashed. How I lammed into the beggar!1894 December 27, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Æpyornis Island”, in The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents, London: Methuen & Co. […], published 1895, →OCLC, page 144
   • It's all right. An Englishwoman there lammed into me last night, first about the atom bomb and then saying that I must be a fanatic.1954, Saul Bellow, “The Gonzaga Manuscripts”, in Mosby's Memoirs and Other Stories, Penguin, published 1984, page 120