glom on en · VERB
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Meanings
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(intransitive, slang) To attach oneself to something.
But as Siri’s many noted missteps attest, a computer really has no idea what you’re talking about. It breaks your speech down, gloms on to keywords and makes a good guess at what you’re asking.
2016 October 8, Sally Adee, “It’s just common sense”, in New Scientist, number 3094, page 22:
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(intransitive) To comprehend something.
Engineers began to glom on to the idea that properly laid crushed rock, interlocked in a particular way at the base of a road, could do much of what the metal reinforcement did — namely hold the structural integrity of the roadway but at a lower overall cost.
2015 October 10, Dan Lett, “Building great roads poses great challenge. Can science, planning finally trump Mother Nature, financial pressures?”, in The Free Press (Winnipeg):
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| glomb on | alternative | lexicographic | |
| glomp on | alternative | lexicographic | |
| glomming on | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| glommed on | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| glommed on | Tense=Past | lexicographic | |
| gloms on | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic |
Relateds
Synonyms
cotton on (understand)