lame

English

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lame

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /leɪm/

• Audio (AU)

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• Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -eɪm
• Hyphenation: lame

Etymology 1

From Middle English lame, from Old English lama (“lame”), from Proto-West Germanic *lam, from Proto-Germanic *lamaz (“lame”), from Proto-Indo-European *lem- (“to crush; fragile”).

Adjective

lame (comparative lamer, superlative lamest)

1. Unable to walk properly because of a problem with one's feet or legs.
   • 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; […]

2. Moving with pain or difficulty on account of injury, defect or temporary obstruction of a function.

   a lame leg, arm or muscle

3. (by extension) 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 J 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     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, 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.

4. (colloquial) Unconvincing or unbelievable.

   He had a really lame excuse for missing the birthday party.

5. (colloquial) Synonym of uncool, uninteresting, or unfunny.

   He kept telling these extremely lame jokes all night.

Usage notes

• Referring to a person without a disability as “lame” is offensive to many as it suggests a derogatory characterization of the physical condition from which the term was derived. Disability rights activists consider figurative uses of “lame” in general to be offensive, arguing that such use adds to the social stigma surrounding physical disabilities.

Synonyms

• (unable to walk properly because of a problem with one's feet or legs): crippled
• (moving with difficulty):
• (by extension, hobbling): hobbling, limping, inefficient, imperfect
• (slang, unconvincing): weak, unbelievable

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of "unable to walk properly because of a problem with one's feet or legs"):
• (antonym(s) of "moving with difficulty"):
• (antonym(s) of "by extension"): efficient, perfect
• (antonym(s) of "slang"): convincing, believable

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

lame (third-person singular simple present lames, present participle laming, simple past and past participle lamed)

1. (transitive) To cause (a person or animal) to become lame.
   • , 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

Noun

lame (plural lames)

1. (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

From Middle French lame, from Latin lamina.

Noun

lame (plural lames)

1. A lamina; 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 […]

2. (in the plural) A set of joined overlapping metal plates.
3. Kitchen tool for scoring bread dough before baking.

Related terms

• lamé
• lamella, lamellar

Translations

References

Anagrams

• -meal, Elam, Elma, Leam, Lema, Malé, alme, amel, leam, lema, male, meal, mela, mela-

Esperanto

Adverb

lame

1. lamely

Estonian

Etymology

From lamama +‎ -e.

Adjective

lame (genitive lameda, partitive lamedat, comparative lamedam, superlative kõige lamedam)

1. flat

Declension

French

Etymology

Inherited from Latin lāmina, through the accusative lāminam. Doublet of lamine, a borrowing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lam/

• Audio (Canada, Montréal)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -am
• Homophone: lames

Noun

lame f (plural lames)

1. lamina
2. blade
3. wave

Related terms

• lamé m
• lamer
• lamellaire
• lamelle
• laminer
• lamineur m

Descendants

• → Catalan: llama
• → Italian: lama
• → Persian: لام (lâm, “microscope slide”)

Further reading

• “lame”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Anagrams

• mâle, mêla

Friulian

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin lamina. Compare Romansch loma, lama, French lame, Italian and Venetian lama.

Noun

lame f (plural lamis)

1. blade

German

Etymology

From the English adjective lame.

Adjective

lame (strong nominative masculine singular lamer, not comparable)

1. (slang) boring; unimpressive
2. (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

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈla.me/
• Rhymes: -ame
• Hyphenation: là‧me

Noun

lame f

1. plural of lama

Anagrams

• alme, male, mela

Mauritian Creole

Etymology

From French main.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Noun

lame

1. hand

Middle English

Verb

lame

1. To shine.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Piers Plowman to this entry?)

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

Adjective

lame

1. (non-standard since 2012) definite singular of lam
2. (non-standard since 2012) plural of lam

Etymology 2

Noun

lame m (definite singular lameen, indefinite plural lamear, definite plural lameane)

1. alternative spelling of lamé

Old French

Noun

lame oblique singular, f (oblique plural lames, nominative singular lame, nominative plural lames)

1. blade (of a weapon)

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Noun

lame f

1. inflection of lamă:
   1. indefinite plural
   2. indefinite genitive/dative singular

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlame/
• Rhymes: -ame
• Syllabification: la‧me

Verb

lame

1. inflection of lamer:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Swedish

Adjective

lame

1. definite natural masculine singular of lam