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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

clammy en · ADJ

Pronunciation

Etymology

From Middle English clam (“viscous, sticky; slimy”) + -y, from Old English clǣman (“to smear, bedaub”). Compare German klamm (“clammy”) and klemmen (“to be stuck, stick”). See also clam.

Meanings

  1. Cold and damp, usually referring to hands or palms.
    • Jenny Lee reached out and took hold of the man’s hand. It was cold and clammy, a deadlike feeling. 2010 December 14, Sharon Orsack, “Chapter One”, in Bobby & Me: A Novel, Tate Publishing & Enterprises, →ISBN, page 9:
    • The cause is a temperate conglutination ; for both bodies are clammy and viscous , and do bridle the deflux of humours to the hurts , without penning them in too much 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “VII. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
    • His hands were clammy from fright.
    • Then he could see the modest bookseller, somewhat clammy in his extremities and lost within his academic robe and hood, nervously fidgeting his mortar-board, haled forward by ushers, and tottering rubescent before the chancellor, provost, president (or whoever it might be) who hands out the diploma. 1919, Christopher Morley, “Again the Narrative is Retarded”, in The Haunted Bookshop, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 171:
  2. The quality of normal skin signs, epidermis that is neither diaphoretic nor dry.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
clammiest Degree=Sup lexicographic
clammier Degree=Cmp lexicographic

Deriveds

clammyweed · clammy cuphea · clammy goosefoot · clamminess · clammily · unclammy

Translations (12)

sh hladno i vlažno (Cold and damp) · pdt feicht (Cold and damp) · bg студен и влажен (Cold and damp) · fr moite (Cold and damp) · ru холо́дный и вла́жный (Cold and damp) · mi kūpiapia (Cold and damp) · mi haumotu (Cold and damp) · fi nihkeä (Cold and damp) · nb klam (Cold and damp) · de klamm (Cold and damp) · nb fuktig (Cold and damp) · ja じめじめ (Cold and damp)