ram

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English

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Wikipedia
A ram (male sheep).

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English ram, rom, ramme, from Old English ramm (ram), from Proto-Germanic *rammaz (ram), possibly from *rammaz (strong). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Rom (ram), Dutch ram (a male sheep), German Ramm, Ramme (ram). Possibly akin also to Danish ram (sharp; acrid; rank), Swedish ram (strong; perfect), Faroese ramur (strong; competent), Icelandic rammur (strong; sturdy).

Noun

ram (plural rams)

  1. (zoology, agriculture) A male sheep, typically uncastrated.
  2. A battering ram; a heavy object used for breaking through doors.
  3. (military, nautical, chiefly historical) A warship intended to sink other ships by ramming them.
    • 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 178:
      About a couple of miles out lay an ironclad very low in the water, almost, to my brother's perception, like a water-logged ship. This was the ram Thunder Child.
  4. (military, nautical, chiefly historical) A reinforced section of the bow of a warship, intended to be used for ramming other ships.
  5. A piston powered by hydraulic pressure.
  6. An act of ramming.
  7. A weight which strikes a blow, in a ramming device such as a pile driver, steam hammer, or stamp mill.
    • 1952 July, W. R. Watson, “Sankey Viaduct and Embankment”, in Railway Magazine, page 487:
      He describes the operation thus: "The heavy ram employed to impart the finishing strokes, hoisted up with double purchase and snail's pace to the summit of the Piling Engine, and then falling down like a thunderbolt on the head of the devoted timber, driving it perhaps a single half inch in to the stratum below, is well calculated to put to the test the virtue of patience, while it illustrates the old adage of—slow and sure."
Hyponyms

(warship intended to sink ships by ramming):

Coordinate terms

(male sheep):

Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also

Etymology 2

From Middle English rammen, from the noun (see above). Compare Old High German rammen.

Verb

ram (third-person singular simple present rams, present participle ramming, simple past and past participle rammed)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To collide with (an object), usually with the intention of damaging it or disabling its function.
    The man, driving an SUV, then rammed the gate, according to police.
    • 2016 December 29, M. Kumar, “Snatch thieves accidentally rammed by victim”, in The Star, Malaysia:
      Two snatch thieves who snatched a woman's bag experienced swift karma when their victim accidentally rammed into their motorcycle.
    • 2018 October 17, Drachinifel, 25:35 from the start, in Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918, archived from the original on 4 August 2022:
      The other ships, either not caring or too badly-damaged to do anything about it, proceed on their mission, with König the last to fall silent, shot to pieces in a last attempt to ram the Bellerophon.
    • 2021 December 29, Drachinifel, 21:03 from the start, in The USN Pacific Submarine Campaign - The Dark Year (Dec'41 - Dec'42), archived from the original on 19 July 2022:
      The only amusing highlight was Gudgeon having managed to exploit U.S. codebreaking efforts to ambush and destroy the submarine I-173, albeit not for the lack of the Mark 14's trying to sabotage the effort, as the torpedo that had hit the sub had refused to detonate; it seemed, however, that the car-crash levels of kinetic energy involved in the dud simply ramming the sub had nonetheless done enough to fatally damage it.
  2. (transitive) To strike (something) hard, especially with an implement.
    To build a sturdy fence, you have to ram the posts deep into the ground.
  3. (transitive) To seat a cartridge, projectile, or propellant charge in the breech of a firearm by pushing or striking.
    After placing the cartridge in the musket, ram it down securely with the ramrod.
  4. (transitive, also figuratively) To force, cram or thrust (someone or something) into or through something.
    • 2023 July 4, Marina Hyde, “Who’s for political Bazball with Rishi? Voters? Tories? Anyone?”, in The Guardian:
      Again: great to take lessons in ethics from a guy currently trying to ram through a policy of freighting refugees off to cuddly Rwandan president Paul Kagame.
  5. (transitive) To fill or compact by pounding or driving.
    rammed earth walls
  6. (slang) To thrust during sexual intercourse.
    • 1999, Mr.Web, Size Matters review by mr. web review Group: rec.arts.movies.erotica
      like feel a soft butt against their pelvis or ram a girl really hard with piston-like speed while she begs and screams for more
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 3

Likely from Old Norse ramr, rammr (strong, rank, bitter), from Proto-Germanic *rammaz (strong, overbearing; acrid, rank), perhaps ultimately related to Etymology 1 above. Compare Scots ram (a rank odour). Compare also Middle English rammish (rank, offensive in smell).

Adjective

ram (comparative more ram, superlative most ram)

  1. (Northern England) Rancid; offensive in smell or taste.

See also

Anagrams

Catalan

Etymology

Inherited from Latin rāmus.

Pronunciation

Noun

ram m (plural rams)

  1. bouquet, bunch
  2. (architecture) flight of stairs
  3. (figurative) branch (area in business or of knowledge, research)

Derived terms

Further reading

Dutch

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch ram (a male sheep), from Old Dutch *ram, of West-Germanic origin, possibly from Proto-Germanic *rammaz (strong). Cognate to English ram (a male sheep). The sense "battering ram" was borrowed as a semantic loan from Latin ariēs in Middle Dutch.

Noun

ram m (plural rammen, diminutive rammetje n, feminine ooi)

  1. ram (male sheep)
  2. male rabbit
  3. battering ram
Derived terms
Descendants
  • Afrikaans: ram

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

ram

  1. inflection of rammen:
    1. first-person singular present indicative
    2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
    3. imperative

Anagrams

Elfdalian

Adjective

ram

  1. hoarse

Inflection

This adjective needs an inflection-table template.

Friulian

Etymology 1

From Latin rāmus.

Noun

ram m (plural rams)

  1. branch

Etymology 2

From Vulgar Latin *arāmen, variant of Late Latin aerāmen, derived from Latin aer-. Compare Italian rame.

Noun

ram m

  1. copper

Gerka

Alternative forms

Etymology

Related to Ngas am (water).

Noun

ram

  1. water

References

  • Takács, Gábor (2007) Etymological Dictionary of Egyptian, volume 3, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 201, →ISBN:
    we should carefully distinguish the following Ch. roots from AA *m-ˀ "water" :
    (1) Ch. *h-m "water" : WCh. *hama : AS *ham (Gmy. *hām) = *am = *ham = *ham : Gerka ram = ɣàm "Wasser" ,

Haruai

Noun

ram

  1. house

Further reading

  • Dicky Gilbers, John A. Nerbonne, J. Schaeken, Languages in Contact (2000, →ISBN), page 84: "Examples of basic vocabulary items that are shared by Haruai and Kobon but not by Hagahai (on the basis of the lists in Davies and Comrie (1984)) include, for instance: Haruai ram, Kobon ram 'house';"

Indonesian

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Onomatopoeic

Noun

ram (plural ram-ram, first-person possessive ramku, second-person possessive rammu, third-person possessive ramnya)

  1. rumbling, roaring

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Dutch raam (window; frame), from Middle Dutch rame.

Noun

ram (plural ram-ram, first-person possessive ramku, second-person possessive rammu, third-person possessive ramnya)

  1. frame
    Synonym: pemidangan
  2. mesh
  3. (colloquial) window
    Synonym: jendela

Etymology 3

Noun

ram

  1. Alternative spelling of eram

Further reading

Kobon

Noun

ram

  1. house

Further reading

  • Bernard Comrie, Switch Reference in Huichol, in Switch-reference and Universal Grammar, edited by John Haiman, Pamela Munro, page 29 (in notes):
    hol bɨ kaj pak-ul ram ud ar-bul
    we-two man pig strike SS-1DU house take go I-1DU
    'we two killed a pig and took it home'
  • Dicky Gilbers, John A. Nerbonne, J. Schaeken, Languages in Contact (2000, →ISBN), page 84: "Examples of basic vocabulary items that are shared by Haruai and Kobon but not by Hagahai (on the basis of the lists in Davies and Comrie (1984)) include, for instance: Haruai ram, Kobon ram 'house';"

Maltese

Chemical element
Cu
Previous: nikil (Ni)
Next: żingu (Zn)

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian rame (copper).

Pronunciation

Noun

ram m

  1. (chemistry) copper

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old English ramm, from Proto-Germanic *rammaz.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ram/, /raːm/, /rɔm/

Noun

ram (plural rams)

  1. male sheep, ram
  2. (astrology) Aries
  3. pile driver, battering ram

Descendants

References

Middle High German

Noun

ram

  1. Alternative form of rame (frame)

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

ram

  1. imperative of ramme

Old English

Noun

ram m

  1. Alternative form of ramm

Old Occitan

Etymology

From Latin rāmus. Gallo-Romance cognate with Old French raim.

Noun

ram m (oblique plural rams, nominative singular rams, nominative plural ram)

  1. branch (of a tree, etc.)

Descendants

References

Old Tupi

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Tupi-Guarani *ram.

Cognate with Mbyá Guaraní -rã.

Pronunciation

Adjective

ram (noun form rama)

  1. future; coming
    Antonym: pûer
  2. shall be
    • 1555, Joseph of Anchieta, chapter VII, in Arte de grammatica da lingoa mais vſada na coſta do Braſil (overall work in Portuguese), Coimbra: Antonio de Mariz, published 1595, Da formição dos Præteritos, & Futuros dos nomes, page 33v:
      [] xerâm, nderâm, yrâm.
      [ [] xe ram, nde ram, i ram.]
      I shall be, you shall be, they shall be.

Declension

Derived terms

Descendants

References

Romanian

Etymology

Inherited from Latin rāmus, from Proto-Indo-European *wréh₂ds (root).

Pronunciation

Noun

ram n (plural ramuri)

  1. (rare) branch, bough
    Synonyms: creangă, ramură

Romansch

Etymology 1

From Latin rāmus.

Noun

ram m (plural rams)

  1. (Puter) branch (of tree, river, etc.)
  2. (Puter, education) subject
Alternative forms
Synonyms

Etymology 2

Germanic borrowing, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *hramu (frame).

This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Noun

ram m (plural rams)

  1. (Puter) frame, framework
Alternative forms

Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

ram f (plural rams)

  1. (Puter) knot, gnarl
Alternative forms

Swedish

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Old Swedish rama, borrowed from Middle Low German rāme, from Old Saxon hrama.

Noun

ram c

  1. frame (e.g. around a painting)
  2. frame, boundaries (the set of options for actions given)
  3. frame (a context for understanding)
  4. bicycle frame
Declension
Descendants

Etymology 2

From Old Swedish ramber, Old Norse hrammr (bear's claw; paw).

Noun

ram c

  1. a front paw of a bear
  2. (figuratively) a large hand
Declension
See also

References

Anagrams

Ternate

Pronunciation

Verb

ram

  1. (transitive) to wipe with both hands

Conjugation

Conjugation of ram
Singular Plural
Inclusive Exclusive
1st toram foram miram
2nd noram niram
3rd Masculine oram iram, yoram
Feminine moram
Neuter iram
- archaic

References

  • Rika Hayami-Allen (2001) A descriptive study of the language of Ternate, the northern Moluccas, Indonesia, University of Pittsburgh

Tok Pisin

Etymology

From English rum.

Noun

ram

  1. rum

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Verb

ram (𤓆)

  1. (cooking) to sauté then braise with added water or coconut water
    sườn ramribs cooked with such a method

See also

Etymology 2

Noun

ram

  1. (Central Vietnam) fried spring roll
    Synonyms: nem rán, chả giò

Etymology 3

From French rame.

Noun

ram

  1. ream