lame
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]- (UK, US) IPA(key): /leɪm/
Audio (General Australian): (file) Audio (UK): (file) - Rhymes: -eɪm
- Hyphenation: lame
Etymology 1
[edit]From Middle English lame, from Old English lama (“lame”), from Proto-West Germanic *lam, from Proto-Germanic *lamaz (“lame”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃lemH- (“to tire; to break”).[1]
Adjective
[edit]lame (comparative lamer, superlative lamest)
- (especially of an animal) Unable to walk properly because of a problem with one's feet or legs.
- Synonym: crippled
- a lame horse
- 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXIII, page 39:
- Alone, alone, to where he sits,
The Shadow cloak’d from head to foot
Who keeps the keys of all the creeds,
I wander, often falling lame,
And looking back to whence I came,
Or on to where the pathway leads; […]
- (by extension, dated) Hobbling; limping; inefficient; imperfect.
- a. 1678 (date written), Isaac Barrow, “(please specify the chapter name or sermon number). Of Industry in General”, in The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: A[braham] J[ohn] Valpy, […], published 1830–1831, →OCLC:
- a lame endeavour
- c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
- O, most lame and impotent conclusion! […]
- 1801, Isaac Watts, The improvement of the mind, or A supplement to the art of logic:
- It is the remark of an ingenious writer, should a barbarous Indian, who had never seen a palace or a ship, view their separate and disjointed parts, and observe the pillars, doors, windows, cornices and turrets of the one, or the prow and stern, the ribs and masts, the ropes and shrouds, the sails and tackle of the other, he would be able to form but a very lame and dark idea of either of those excellent and useful inventions.
- 1856, J. W. Redhouse, An English and Turkish Dictionary[1], page xx:
- The ی consonant is our English y […] It is really a sad mistake for us, who possess this useful consonant, to adopt the lame expedient to which other languages are forced to have recourse, namely, the use of the vowel i, with or without the diaresis over it.
- (colloquial) Unconvincing or unbelievable.
- Synonym: weak
- Antonyms: convincing, believable
- He had a really lame excuse for missing the birthday party.
- (colloquial) Uncool, uninteresting, or unfunny.
- He kept telling these extremely lame jokes all night.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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Verb
[edit]lame (third-person singular simple present lames, present participle laming, simple past and past participle lamed)
- (transitive) To cause (a person or animal) to become lame.
- [1877], Anna Sewell, “A Job Horse and his Drivers”, in Black Beauty: […], London: Jarrold and Sons, […], →OCLC, part II, pages 134–135:
- And if you don't want to lame your horse, you must look sharp and get them [stones stuck in hooves] out quickly.
- 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 6, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
- Now her soul felt lamed in itself. It was her hope that was struck.
Translations
[edit]
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Noun
[edit]lame (plural lames)
- (prison slang) A stupid or undesirable person.
- 2011, Lil' Kim (lyrics and music), “Black Friday”:
- You lames tryna clone my style and run wit it.
Etymology 2
[edit]From Middle French lame, from Latin lāmina. Doublet of lamina.
Noun
[edit]lame (plural lames)
- A thin layer or plate of material, as in certain kinds of armor.
- 2013, Paul F Walker, History of Armour 1100-1700, Crowood, →ISBN:
- This rim involved a raised rolled edge on the rerebrace that was inserted into a raised lip on the lower lame of the pauldron. This lip allows the arm to rotate without the need for leather straps and can be clearly seen carved on to the effigy […]
- 2015, Anne Curry, Malcolm Mercer, The Battle of Agincourt, Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 120:
- These pauldrons are generally asymmetrical with the left pauldron wider than the right, which is cut away for the passage of the lance. It would be attached to the shoulder by points through a restored leather tab on the top lame at the apex […]
- (in the plural) A set of joined overlapping metal plates.
- A kitchen tool for scoring bread dough before baking.
Related terms
[edit]- lamé
- lamellar (adj)
- lamellate (adj)
- lamellation
- lamination
Translations
[edit]References
[edit]Anagrams
[edit]Esperanto
[edit]Adverb
[edit]lame
Estonian
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Adjective
[edit]lame (genitive lameda, partitive lamedat, comparative lamedam, superlative kõige lamedam)
Declension
[edit]Declension of lame (ÕS type 2/õpik, no gradation) | |||
---|---|---|---|
singular | plural | ||
nominative | lame | lamedad | |
accusative | nom. | ||
gen. | lameda | ||
genitive | lamedate | ||
partitive | lamedat | lamedaid | |
illative | lamedasse | lamedatesse lamedaisse | |
inessive | lamedas | lamedates lamedais | |
elative | lamedast | lamedatest lamedaist | |
allative | lamedale | lamedatele lamedaile | |
adessive | lamedal | lamedatel lamedail | |
ablative | lamedalt | lamedatelt lamedailt | |
translative | lamedaks | lamedateks lamedaiks | |
terminative | lamedani | lamedateni | |
essive | lamedana | lamedatena | |
abessive | lamedata | lamedateta | |
comitative | lamedaga | lamedatega |
French
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Inherited from Latin lāmina, through the accusative lāminam. Doublet of lamine, a borrowing.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]lame f (plural lames)
Related terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]- → Catalan: llama
- → Italian: lama
- → Persian: لام (lâm, “microscope slide”)
Further reading
[edit]- “lame”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
[edit]Friulian
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Ultimately from Latin lāmina. Compare Romansch loma, lama, French lame, Italian and Venetan lama.
Noun
[edit]lame f (plural lamis)
German
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From the English adjective lame.
Adjective
[edit]lame (strong nominative masculine singular lamer, not comparable)
- (slang) boring; unimpressive
- (slang) unskilled; useless
- Ich wollte nicht sagen, dass das, was die machen, total lame ist.
- I didn’t want to say that what they are doing is totally lame.
Declension
[edit]number & gender | singular | plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
masculine | feminine | neuter | |||
predicative | er ist lame | sie ist lame | es ist lame | sie sind lame | |
strong declension (without article) |
nominative | lamer | lame | lames | lame |
genitive | lamen | lamer | lamen | lamer | |
dative | lamem | lamer | lamem | lamen | |
accusative | lamen | lame | lames | lame | |
weak declension (with definite article) |
nominative | der lame | die lame | das lame | die lamen |
genitive | des lamen | der lamen | des lamen | der lamen | |
dative | dem lamen | der lamen | dem lamen | den lamen | |
accusative | den lamen | die lame | das lame | die lamen | |
mixed declension (with indefinite article) |
nominative | ein lamer | eine lame | ein lames | (keine) lamen |
genitive | eines lamen | einer lamen | eines lamen | (keiner) lamen | |
dative | einem lamen | einer lamen | einem lamen | (keinen) lamen | |
accusative | einen lamen | eine lame | ein lames | (keine) lamen |
Italian
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]lame f
Anagrams
[edit]Mauritian Creole
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]lame
Middle English
[edit]Verb
[edit]lame
- To shine.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Piers Plowman to this entry?)
Norwegian Nynorsk
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]Adjective
[edit]lame
Etymology 2
[edit]Noun
[edit]lame m (definite singular lameen, indefinite plural lamear, definite plural lameane)
- alternative spelling of lamé
Old French
[edit]Noun
[edit]lame oblique singular, f (oblique plural lames, nominative singular lame, nominative plural lames)
- blade (of a weapon)
Romanian
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]lame f
- inflection of lamă:
Spanish
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]lame
- inflection of lamer:
Swedish
[edit]Adjective
[edit]lame
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/eɪm
- Rhymes:English/eɪm/1 syllable
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English dated terms
- English offensive terms
- English colloquialisms
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English prison slang
- English terms derived from Middle French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
- en:Disability
- Esperanto lemmas
- Esperanto adverbs
- Estonian terms suffixed with -e
- Estonian lemmas
- Estonian adjectives
- Estonian õpik-type nominals
- French terms inherited from Latin
- French terms derived from Latin
- French doublets
- French 1-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:French/am
- Rhymes:French/am/1 syllable
- French terms with homophones
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French feminine nouns
- fr:Swords
- Friulian terms derived from Latin
- Friulian lemmas
- Friulian nouns
- Friulian feminine nouns
- German lemmas
- German adjectives
- German uncomparable adjectives
- German slang
- German terms with usage examples
- Italian 2-syllable words
- Italian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Italian/ame
- Rhymes:Italian/ame/2 syllables
- Italian non-lemma forms
- Italian noun forms
- Mauritian Creole terms derived from French
- Mauritian Creole terms with IPA pronunciation
- Mauritian Creole lemmas
- Mauritian Creole nouns
- mfe:Anatomy
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English verbs
- Requests for quotations/Piers Plowman
- Norwegian Nynorsk non-lemma forms
- Norwegian Nynorsk adjective forms
- Norwegian Nynorsk lemmas
- Norwegian Nynorsk nouns
- Norwegian Nynorsk masculine nouns
- Old French lemmas
- Old French nouns
- Old French feminine nouns
- Romanian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Romanian non-lemma forms
- Romanian noun forms
- Spanish 2-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Spanish/ame
- Rhymes:Spanish/ame/2 syllables
- Spanish non-lemma forms
- Spanish verb forms
- Swedish non-lemma forms
- Swedish adjective forms