scram
/skɹæm/
scram verb: to leave in a hurry; to go away.
Verb (1)
scram (third-person singular simple present scrams, present participle scramming, simple past and past participle scrammed)
- To leave in a hurry; to go away.
- What are you kids doing on my lawn? Scram!
- Maybe when he found that Chet's jalopy was gone, he felt he'd better scram, and forgot the coat and hat.1927, Franklin W. Dixon [pseudonym; Leslie McFarlane], “Rival Detectives”, in The Tower Treasure (The Hardy Boys; 1), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, published 1987 (2006 printing), →ISBN
Noun (1)
scram (plural scrams)
- A gun, firearm.
- Bad be say she don’t usually do this
In the trap with a stick, I do this
Get ’round there with a scram
I don’t give a damn2021 May 11, “Tie These Shoes” (0:54 from the start), 22 Jam featured by Trizz (lyrics) - My manager says I'm stupid for still rollin' with a scram
I hate explainin' myself and I don't think he'll understand2023 June 18, “100mph Freestyle x3” (1:12 from the start), Clavish (lyrics)
- Bad be say she don’t usually do this
Verb (2)
scram (third-person singular simple present scrams, present participle scraming or scramming, simple past and past participle scramed or scrammed)
- To shut down (a nuclear reactor or, by extension, some other thing) for safety reasons, usually because of an emergency.
- The NCR [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] further demands the plant conform to all the safety requirements put into effect during construction. This means constant re-design. There must also be several ways to scram (emergency shut down) the reactor. Some of these are automatic and some are manual.1976 December, Randy Warsaw, “Fermi II – A Plant Tour”, in Ray Barry, editor, The Michigan Technic, volume XCV, number 3, [Ann Arbor, Mich.]: College of Engineering, University of Michigan, →ISSN...
- Startup of reactor recirculating pump resulted in flux spike scraming plant.1978, “Appendix II—Answers to Written Questions Posed to Nuclear Regulatory Commission before the Hearings”, in Nuclear Regulatory Commission Authorization Requests: Hearings before the Subcommittee...
- Of a nuclear reactor or some other thing: to shut down, usually because of an emergency.
- This shut off current to the control rod mechanism, and the reactor scrammed (shut off) automatically.1984, Charles Perrow, “Nuclear Power as a High-risk System”, in Normal Accidents: Living with High-risk Technologies, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, published 1999, →ISBN, page 44
- As soon as the earthquake struck, the reactors "scrammed"—shut down automatically—as they were supposed to.2012, Daniel Yergin, “The Urgency of Fuel Choice”, in The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World, revised edition, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, →ISBN, part 3 (The Electric...
Noun (2)
scram (plural scrams)
- A shutdown of a nuclear reactor (or, by extension, some other thing), often done rapidly due to an emergency.
- During scram operation, a scram signal de-energizes the inlet and outlet scram valves. The outlet scram valve vents the volume above the drive piston to a scram dump tank. The inlet scram valve supplies scram pressure obtained from an accumulator to the under side of the vented piston.1960 October 5, John Roberts, S. F. Armour, “Introduction”, in T7 Tanker Locking Piston Control Rod Drive Scram Analysis (GEAP 3561), Oak Ridge, Tenn.: Office of Technical Information, United States...
- Of the 14 scrams experienced, none was caused by operation exceeding the design parameters. Eight scrams occurred with the control rods withdrawn. [...] Six scrams occurred while the rods were inserted. Five were intentional to prevent accidental rod withdrawal, and one was the unintentional result...1966 fall, staff of First Atomic Ship Transport, Inc., “Operating Experience of the N.S. Savannah in Commercial Service”, in Nuclear Safety: A Quarterly Technical Progress Review, volume 8, number 1...
- The device used to shut down a nuclear reactor; also, the button or switch used to initiate a shutdown.
- Each room housing a radiation source has a red-buttoned "scram" switch on the wall. One touch of the switch and all equipment stops abruptly.1963 June, Kenneth Calkins, “Linac and Dynamitron”, in Boeing Magazine, volume XXXIII, number 6, Seattle, Wash.: Public Relations Division, Boeing Airplane Company, →OCLC, page 6, column 2
- She watched as the Marine technical team leader pressed the red SCRAM buttons for each reactor, setting off a chorus of alarms.1993, Tom Clancy, Marine: A Guided Tour of a Marine Expeditionary Unit, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Books, published November 1996, →ISBN
Verb (3)
scram (third-person singular simple present scrams, present participle scramming, simple past and past participle scrammed)
- To scratch (something) with claws or fingernails; to claw.
- scram [...] Verb. [...] 2. To scratch, with claws or fingernails. E.g. "It's my own fault the cat scrammed me, I was teasing it." [South Wales use][1996–2020, Ted Duckworth, “scram”, in A Dictionary of Slang, archived from the original on 30 Aug 2013
- A woman has praised firefighters and her cat for saving her life following an alleged arson attack. Two-and-a-half-year-old tortoiseshell Taffy repeatedly bit owner Tracie Horgan-Hodgkiss on the hand until she woke up when her flat filled with acrid smoke in the early hours of this morning. [...]...2013 December 19, Abby Bolter, “Firefighters Rescue Woman Trapped in Bridgend Flat following an Alleged Arson Attack”, in WalesOnline, archived from the original on 24 Dec 2013
- To mine for ore on a small scale, especially from mines previously been worked on where most of the ore is believed to have been removed.
- Just west of this pit is another one, which has been nearly worked out; but three men are scramming about five tons per day in it.1880, “Marquette Iron District”, in Annual Report of the Commissioner of Mineral Statistics of the State of Michigan, for 1879, Lansing, Mich.: W. S. George & Co., […], →OCLC, page 167
- Recently, Capt. Oliver, [...] set a couple of experienced miners to work scramming in this underground pit, when it was soon discovered that what the former mining captain had conceived to be a regular foot-wall, was, in fact, a thin shale of rock, which hid from view what now appears to be a very...1882, A. P. Swineford, “The Cyclops Mine”, in Annual Review of the Iron Mining and Other Industries of the Upper Peninsula for the Year Ending Dec. 31, 1881, [Marquette, Mich.]: Mining Journal...
Noun (3)
scram (plural scrams)
- A scratch, especially caused by claws or fingernails.
- scram [...] Noun. [...] 2. A scratch. [South Wales use][1996–2020, Ted Duckworth, “scram”, in A Dictionary of Slang, archived from the original on 30 Aug 2013
- A mine previously worked on where most of the ore is believed to have been removed, but which is still being mined on a small scale.
- [page 64] Many of these old openings still afford places where ore is mined. A man can start in almost anywhere and fine ore. There is a great deal of this "scramming" done at the Jackson. Quite a proportion of the annual product comes in this way. Not unfrequently one of these "scrams" leads to...1887, Cha[rle]s D. Lawton, “The Jackson Iron Co.”; “The Cleveland Mining Co.”, in Mines and Mineral Statistics, Lansing, Mich.: Thorp & Godfrey, […], →OCLC, pages 64 and 67
- There are numbered workings running to about 20, representing small pits and scrams, sometimes worked by contract by "scrammers."1891, N[ewton] H[orace] Winchell, H[orace] V[aughn] Winchell, “The Chandler Mine”, in The Iron Ores of Minnesota, […] (Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota Bulletin; no. 6)...
Verb (4)
scram (third-person singular simple present scrams, present participle scramming, simple past and past participle scrammed)
- Of one's body or limbs: to become numb or stiff due to cold, lack of movement, etc.
- The bean-setters can fully appreciate the nipping, biting keenness of the air, and avow frankly, in their own peculiar idiom, "that they be pretty nigh scrammed!"1857, Frances Freeling Broderip, “Murder Will Out. An ‘Owre True Tale.’”, in Way-side Fancies, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, part 2, page 13
- But though he had breeches and waistcoats to spare, / He had nothing quite seemly for Barbee to wear, / Who, half shrammed to death, stood and cried on a chair / At the caddle she found herself in.1866 (date written), Thomas Hardy, “The Fire at Tranter Sweatley’s”, in Wessex Poems and Other Verses, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, published 1898, →OCLC, page 191
- To be weakened by an accident, a disease, starvation, etc.
- "But they will be scrammed!^* the children will be scrammed, Mary, before morning," cried Jim, scratching his head with perplexity and distress at the very thought of two young creatures sleeping on the bare boards, in a cold garret with only a shawl to cover them. [Footnote *: Starved.][1867], chapter I, in How Mary Edmonds Did What She Could; and What Came of it after Many Days, London: The Religious Tract Society, […], →OCLC, pages 14–15
Noun (4) capitalized: SCRAM
SCRAM (countable and uncountable, plural SCRAMs)
- Alternative letter-case form of scram.
- She watched as the Marine technical team leader pressed the red SCRAM buttons for each reactor, setting off a chorus of alarms.1993, Tom Clancy, Marine: A Guided Tour of a Marine Expeditionary Unit, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Books, published November 1996, →ISBN
- Although fission stops almost immediately with a SCRAM, fission products in the fuel continue to release decay heat, initially about 6.5% of full reactor power. [...] Corresponding with the SCRAM, emergency generators were automatically activated to power electronics and cooling systems.2016, Nabil Abu el Ata, Rudolf Schmandt, “Understanding the Hidden Risk of Dynamic Complexity”, in The Tyranny of Uncertainty: A New Framework to Predict, Remediate and Monitor Risk, Berlin...
Verb (5) capitalized: SCRAM
SCRAM (third-person singular simple present SCRAMs, present participle SCRAMing, simple past and past participle SCRAMed)
- Alternative letter-case form of scram.
- Raising group eight rods and brining a nuclear reactor fully to life for the first time in nearly ten years—everyone was so ready they were all ready to pee in their pants. Andrews did not know he could do it without SCRAMing the reactor—in other words, pushing it into an automatic shutdown that...2012 December 12, D. Michael Battey, chapter 35, in Tenacity Gene, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 174
- Immediately after the earthquake, following government regulations, the remaining reactors, 1–3, automatically SCRAMed; control rods shut down sustained fission reactions.2016, Nabil Abu el Ata, Rudolf Schmandt, “Understanding the Hidden Risk of Dynamic Complexity”, in The Tyranny of Uncertainty: A New Framework to Predict, Remediate and Monitor Risk, Berlin...
scram meaning in Arabic
scram in Arabic
- to leave in a hurry
- غَرَبَ ḡaraba
Examples of scram in a sentence
- Jus' go on like we was gonna buck barley the rest of our lives, then all of a sudden some day we'll go get our pay an' scram outta here.1937, John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, published 1994, →ISBN:
- "You scram out of here!" she admonished me fiercely.1943, Hans Natonek, “The Affair of the Semi-private Bathroom”, in Barthold Fles, transl., edited by Sugden Tilley, In Search of Myself, New...
- One day he packs in here with a new convertible, tells me he's moving out and scrams.1950, Mickey Spillane, My Gun is Quick, New York, N.Y.: Signet, New American Library, published 2014, →ISBN:
- George was going to Haiti and he knew Lee would feel that the one man who took an interest in him was scramming out the door.1988, Don DeLillo, Libra, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, published 2006, →ISBN:
Forms of scram
| third-person singular present | scrams |
|---|---|
| present participle | scramming |
| past participle | scrammed |
| past | scrammed |
| present participle | scraming |
| past participle | scramed |
| past | scramed |
| alternative form | SCRAM |
Origin of scram
Probably either: * a clipping of scramble by apocope; or * from dialectal German schramm, the imperative singular form of schrammen (“to scratch, scrape”), from Late Middle High German schramm, schramme (“a graze, scratch”); further etymology unknown.
Uncertain; the verb is possibly derived from etymology 1. It has been suggested that the word is an acronym for phrases like “safety control rod actuator mechanism”, “safety cut rope axe man”, “safety control rod axe man”, and “safety control rods activation mechanism”, but these are most likely backronyms. The noun is probably derived from the verb.
The verb is a variant of dialectal English scramb (“to pull or rake together with the hands; to gather a handful of something from the ground; to scratch with the claws or nails; to pull down violently; to tear off; to maul about; a handful of something from the ground”), possibly related to Dutch schrammen (“to graze, scratch”) and German schrammen (“to scratch, scrape”); see etymology 1. The noun is derived from the verb.
Words formed from scram
Words that rhyme with scram
47 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about scram
- What does scram mean?
- Scram means to leave in a hurry; to go away.
- What is scram in Arabic?
- Scram in Arabic is غَرَبَ (ḡaraba). See Scram meaning in Arabic.
- How do you use scram in a sentence?
- Jus' go on like we was gonna buck barley the rest of our lives, then all of a sudden some day we'll go get our pay an' scram outta here.
- What part of speech is scram?
- Scram can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce scram?
- Scram is pronounced /skɹæm/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of scram?
- The past tense of scram is scrammed.
Words near scram in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scram (page history and authors); SCRAM (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-scram.wav.
Cite this entry: “scram.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scram. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.