noun
gam
gam
noun
1
A person's leg, especially a shapely one — a dated, informal usage.
"She had a great pair of gams, or so the old detective novel put it."
"He admired her gams as she stepped off the train."
2
A pod, or social gathering, of whales (or occasionally porpoises).
"The sailors spotted a gam of whales breaching off the bow."
verb
1
For a whaling ship to pay a friendly visit to another ship at sea.
"The two whaling crews decided to gam and trade news of their catches."
How to Use Gam
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishAn old-fashioned slang word for a leg, or (in whaling contexts) a social meetup between ships or a group of whales.
When to use it
The "leg" sense is dated slang, mostly seen in old detective fiction; the whaling senses are specialist/historical.
Common pairings
a nice pair of gams
a gam of whales
Word Forms
gammed past tense, gams plural, gams plural, gams singular
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Etymology
From Italian gamba, "leg" — the same root that gives us "gammon" and is related to "ham".