From Middle English temen (“to bear, to support”), from Anglian Old English tēman (“to give birth”) (West Saxon Old English tīeman), from Proto-West Germanic *taumijan (“to bridle”), from Proto-Germanic *taumijaną, from *taumaz ("bridle", continued in Modern English as team).
Meanings
A downpour (of rain).
... a teem of rain and the geranium tremens. 2019 August 20, Seamus Heaney, 100 Poems, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN:
... a teem of rain, and blast of wind; and Katie felt a terrible, deep cold, as if it had got down into her bones and she would never be warm again. 2003, Heather Spears, The Flourish: Murder in the Family, Ekstasis Editions, →ISBN, page 362:
... under the great teems of rain, and houldin' up the grandest new green umbrella ever you laid eyes on. Fine it was entirely, and an iligant body I was consaitin' meself, goodness forgive me. 1908, The Living Age, page 684:
... a teem of rain that poured down so copiously it ran in surface streamlets over the plains. I may literally say we came to anchor this evening in a sheet of water, the prairie, as far as we could see, presenting the same aqueous[…] 1851, William Kelly (J.P.), An Excursion to California Over the Prairie, Rocky Mountains, and Great Sierra Nevada, with a Stroll Through the Diggings and Ranches of that Country, page 147:
From Middle English temen (“to bear, to support”), from Anglian Old English tēman (“to give birth”) (West Saxon Old English tīeman), from Proto-West Germanic *taumijan (“to bridle”), from Proto-Germanic *taumijaną, from *taumaz ("bridle", continued in Modern English as team).
Meanings
To be stocked to overflowing.
his mind teeming with schemes of future deceit to cover former villainy 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:
But well he knew his teeming pangs were vain,
Till Midwife Dryden eas’d his labouring Brain; 1685, Matthew Prior, “A Satyr on the modern Translators”, in H. Bunker Wright, Monroe K. Spears, editors, The Literary Works of Matthew Prior, Second edition, volume I, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1971, page 20:
To be prolific; to abound; to be rife.
Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins. 2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 76:
The steel works, with their Siemens furnaces, the rail-rolling mill with its enormous single-cylinder engine fitted with Corliss valve gear, and the forge in which were installed the great steam hammers and hydraulic presses—these were teeming with interest, and the best way to pick up information was to work with the millwrights. 1944 November and December, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 341:
Fish teem in this pond.
(of rain, qualifier:snow; etc; snow; etc) To fall prolifically.
... rain teemed round me, making everything unstable, shifting and falling down; my condition would not matter. 2018 December 11, Tanith Lee, The Secret Books of Paradys, Open Road Media, →ISBN:
"Troth, it's teemin' powerful this instiant up there in the mountains. 'Twill be much if you land home afore it's atop of you; […]" 1895, Jane Barlow, Strangers at Lisconnel: A Second Series of Irish Idylls, page 45:
... snow teemed upon The Clearing. The cloying wetness of the stuff rose up above his elbows as he, dog-like, lurched on fours towards the centre of the sleeping meadow, as if meaning to out-strip his fellows and flee. But he gurgled back[…] 2018 May 28, A Hanson, A Dream of Unknowing: Tales from a Carpathian Witch, BookRix, →ISBN:
[As] rain teemed down, the passenger peered out from the tinted window. 2010 October 24, Clive Webster, The Missing Model, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 116:
Rain teemed down in sheets. I closed all the windows, took a quick shower, threw on jeans and a silk turtleneck sweater, grabbed an energy bar, and drove to work. Rain pelted the pavement as I cut across the parking lot […] 2015 August 4, Daryl Wood Gerber, Fudging the Books, Penguin, →ISBN, page 112:
Rain teemed from a moonless sky. Splashing in white dashes on the boating lake. Puddles grew at the feet of a man in a crash helmet and a long dark riding coat. Rain streamed down his goggles as he watched Miriam's window. 2014 November 18, John Swinfield, Knock Down Ginger, eBook Partnership, →ISBN:
... rain teemed from the overcast skies, cold and penetrating, and life began to look like one enormous funeral procession. 1912, Ainslee's, page 137:
The snow teemed like white bugs against Mark's windshield for the entire long, silent, thirty-five-mile drive out to her new-rich fantasy- "The Farm" that she shared with my stepfather, Bill : […] 2003, Joel Turnipseed, Baghdad Express: A Gulf War Memoir, Minnesota Historical Society Press, →ISBN, page 26:
(obsolete) To bring forth young, as an animal; to produce fruit, as a plant; to bear; to be pregnant; to conceive; to multiply.
If she must teem, / Create her child of spleen. c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:
oc foisonar (to be prolific; to abound) · pt fervilhar (overflowing with) · pl obradzać (to bring forth young or to produce fruit) · bg плодовит съм (to bring forth young or to produce fruit) · de Nachwuchs hervorbringen (to bring forth young or to produce fruit) · pl zaowocować (to bring forth young or to produce fruit) · pl obfitować (to be prolific; to abound) · tr kaynamak (to be prolific; to abound) · oc groar (overflowing with) · pl obrodzić (to be prolific; to abound) · es fructificar (to bring forth young or to produce fruit) · oc frutar (to bring forth young or to produce fruit) · pl obradzać (overflowing with) · ar اِزْدَحَمَ (overflowing with) · de von etwas wimmeln (overflowing with) · es hervir de (overflowing with) · pl roić się (overflowing with) · sv sprudla (overflowing with) · fr foisonner (overflowing with) · no kry (overflowing with) · de vor etwas strotzen (to be prolific; to abound) · de überborden (overflowing with) · de überquellen (overflowing with) · fi vilistä (overflowing with) · no myldra (overflowing with) · de Früchte tragen (to bring forth young or to produce fruit) · oc pullular (overflowing with) · de Junge werfen (to bring forth young or to produce fruit) · oc abondar (to be prolific; to abound) · de Früchte hervorbringen (to bring forth young or to produce fruit) · no aula (overflowing with) · la parturiō (overflowing with) · es proliferar (to be prolific; to abound) · nl wemelen (to be prolific; to abound) · pl obrodzić (overflowing with) · oc frutar (to be prolific; to abound) · de vor etwas strotzen (overflowing with) · oc fruchejar (to be prolific; to abound) · ja 富む (overflowing with) · mi whakarēwai (to be prolific; to abound) · uk кишіти (to be prolific; to abound) · pl obradzać (to be prolific; to abound) · ru изоби́ловать (overflowing with) · ru кише́ть (overflowing with) · pl obrodzić (to bring forth young or to produce fruit) · pl obfitować (overflowing with) · oc formiguejar (overflowing with) · fo yðja (overflowing with) · uk бути повним (overflowing with) · nl wemelen (overflowing with) · bg изобилствам (to be prolific; to abound) · pl mrowić się (overflowing with) · oc grolhar (overflowing with) · grc βρύω (overflowing with) · cs překypovat (overflowing with) · no vrimla (overflowing with) · cmn 富於 /富于 (overflowing with) · sh врвити (overflowing with) · es bullir (overflowing with) · pl mrowić się (to be prolific; to abound) · uk переповнюватися (overflowing with) · de Nachwuchs zeugen (to bring forth young or to produce fruit) · cs hemžit se (overflowing with) · no yrja (overflowing with) · de schwanger sein (to bring forth young or to produce fruit) · es rebosar de (overflowing with) · oc groar (to be prolific; to abound) · cs oplývat (overflowing with) · pl roić się (to be prolific; to abound) · zza gıreyen (to be prolific; to abound) · it brulicare (overflowing with) · fr grouiller (overflowing with) · de von etwas wimmeln (to be prolific; to abound) · eo pleni (to be prolific; to abound) · oc fruchejar (to bring forth young or to produce fruit) · fo ýa (overflowing with) · sh vrviti (overflowing with) · bg гъмжа (overflowing with) · pl owocować (to bring forth young or to produce fruit)
From Middle English temen (“to drain”), from Old Norse tœma, from Proto-Germanic *tōmijaną (“to empty, make empty”). Cognate to Swedish tömma. Related to English toom (“empty, vacant”). More at toom.
Meanings
(archaic) To empty.
“Are you sure they’re good lodgings?” she asked.
“Yes—yes. Only—it’s a winder when you have to pour your own tea out—an’ nobody to grouse if you teem it in your saucer and sup it up. It somehow takes a’ the taste out of it.” 1913, D. H. Lawrence, “ Chapter 9 on Wikisource.Wikisource ”, in Sons_and_Lovers:
[The banksman] also puts the full tubs to the weighing machine, and thence to the skreens, upon which he teems the coals. It is also his duty to keep an account of the quantity of coals and stones drawn each day. 1849, G. C. Greenwell, A Glossary of Terms used in the Coal Trade of Northumberland and Durham:
To pour (especially with rain)
To pour, as steel, from a melting pot; to fill, as a mould, with molten metal.
(Ireland, Scotland) To drain the water from (boiled potatoes etc.).
bg изливам (to pour, to cast, to found; to fill, from a melting pot, with molten metal) · de schütten (to empty) · pl odlewać (to pour, to cast, to found; to fill, from a melting pot, with molten metal) · de gießen (to pour (rain)) · pl spuszczać wodę (to drain the water from) · ru лить (to pour (rain)) · cs lít (to pour (rain)) · pl spuścić wodę (to drain the water from) · pl lać (to pour (rain)) · pl odlać (to pour, to cast, to found; to fill, from a melting pot, with molten metal) · ru вылива́ть (to empty) · bg лея се (to pour (rain)) · pl opróżnić (to empty) · de gießen (to pour, to cast, to found; to fill, from a melting pot, with molten metal) · pl opróżniać (to empty) · de ausgießen (to empty) · de entleeren (to empty) · ga taosc (to drain the water from) · bg изпразвам (to empty) · sv ösa (to pour (rain)) · sv ösa (to empty) · mi whakarēwai (to pour (rain)) · pl odprowadzić wodę (to drain the water from) · sv tömma (to empty) · mi pātere (to pour (rain)) · ga taom (to drain the water from) · pl odprowadzać wodę (to drain the water from)
From Middle English temen (“to be suitable, befit”), from Old English *teman, from Proto-Germanic *temaną (“to fit”). Cognate with Low German temen, tamen (“to befit”), Dutch betamen (“to befit”), German ziemen. See also tame (adjective) and compare beteem.
Meanings
(obsolete, rare) To think fit.
Ah, said he, thou hast confessed and bewrayed all, I could teem it to rend thee in pieces 1603, George Gifford, Dialogue of Witches: