dam

1 of 4

noun (1)

1
a
: a barrier preventing the flow of water or of loose solid materials (such as soil or snow)
a beaver dam
an ice dam
especially, civil engineering : a barrier built across a watercourse for impounding (see impound sense 2) water
b
: a barrier to check the flow of liquid, gas, or air
2
: a body of water confined by a barrier

dam

2 of 4

verb

dammed; damming

transitive verb

1
: to provide or restrain with a barrier that prevents the flow of water : to provide or restrain with a dam (see dam entry 1 sense 1a)
dam a river
2
: to stop up : block
damming up their emotions

dam

3 of 4

noun (2)

zoology : the female parent of an animal and especially of a domestic animal
the foal's dam

dam

4 of 4

abbreviation

dekameter

Examples of dam in a Sentence

Verb ice floes were damming the river
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
But in June 2023, the Kakhovka dam, which maintains the reservoir, exploded. Nataliya Gumenyuk, The Atlantic, 6 Mar. 2024 The destruction of the Kakhovka dam farther up the Dnieper River has also proved problematic for operators at the plant. Richard Engel, NBC News, 22 Feb. 2024 With traditional dams and all that newfangled spongy infrastructure, between February 4 and 7 the metropolis captured 8.6 billion gallons of stormwater, enough to provide water to 106,000 households for a year. Matt Simon, WIRED, 19 Feb. 2024 By completing a season sweep of the Pac-12 Mountain schools, this time with dominating road wins, the Beavers are making a dam good case for being the best team in the mighty Pac-12. Jeff Metcalfe, The Mercury News, 13 Feb. 2024 The plan is to not allow visitors north of the Big Sable River and close the dam, footbridge and highway bridge. Tanya Wildt, Detroit Free Press, 23 Feb. 2024 The work of removing dams on the Klamath River is continuing, and the draining of reservoirs is exposing lands that have been underwater for many years. Ian James, Los Angeles Times, 21 Feb. 2024 Its banks finance the mostly Chinese companies now building highways, ports, hydropower dams, solar power plants, and electricity grids in over 20 countries. Shannon K. O’Neil, Foreign Affairs, 20 Feb. 2024 Efforts range from planting bushes for slowing the encroaching dunes to building multimillion-dollar dams. Victoria Milko, Quartz, 8 Feb. 2024
Verb
At the same time, in the late 19th and early 20th century, the Gila River Indian Community, which has relied on its eponymous river for farming for millennia, was thrust into crisis and famine when the river was dammed upstream. Arlyssa D. Becenti, The Arizona Republic, 1 Mar. 2024 The plan brokered by the Biden administration pauses long-running litigation over federal dam operations and represents the most significant step yet toward eventually taking the four Snake River dams down. Matthew Daly, Fortune, 24 Feb. 2024 The country will need to dam even more rivers to guarantee water through the end of the century. Tribune News Service, Hartford Courant, 10 Jan. 2024 An Ancient Lake About 16 million years ago, a lava flow in what would one day become Clarkia, Idaho, dammed a local drainage system and created a deep lake in a narrow, steep-sided valley. Robert Patalano, Discover Magazine, 9 Feb. 2024 An ancient lake About 16 million years ago, a lava flow in what would one day become Clarkia, Idaho, dammed a local drainage system and created a deep lake in a narrow, steep-sided valley. Robert Patalano, The Conversation, 5 Feb. 2024 Once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River, Tulare Lake was largely drained in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as the rivers that fed it were dammed and diverted for agriculture. Times Staff, Los Angeles Times, 28 Mar. 2023 In the long term, the primary solution to chronic water shortages will be to dam up the Indio River and then drill a tunnel through a mountain to pipe fresh water 8 kilometers (5 miles) into Lake Gatún, the canal’s main reservoir. Tribune News Service, Hartford Courant, 10 Jan. 2024 At the time, it had just been discovered and was only known to exist in one stretch of the Little Tennessee River — which the Tennessee Valley Authority was planning to dam. Travis Loller, Fortune, 28 Dec. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dam.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1) and Verb

Middle English, probably from Middle Dutch; akin to Old English fordemman to stop up

Noun (2)

Middle English dam, dame lady, dam — more at dame

First Known Use

Noun (1)

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Verb

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun (2)

13th century, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of dam was in the 13th century

Dictionary Entries Near dam

Cite this Entry

“Dam.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dam. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

dam

1 of 3 noun
: the female parent especially of a domestic animal

dam

2 of 3 noun
1
: a barrier preventing the flow of water
2
: a body of water held back by a dam

dam

3 of 3 verb
dammed; damming
1
: to provide or restrain with a dam
dam a stream
2
: to stop up : block
dammed-up feelings
Etymology

Noun

Middle English dam, dame "lady, female parent"

Noun

Middle English dam "barrier to hold back water"

Medical Definition

dam

1 of 3 noun
: a female parent
used especially of a domestic animal

dam

2 of 3 noun

dam

3 of 3 abbreviation
dekameter

Biographical Definition

Dam

biographical name

ˈdam How to pronounce Dam (audio)
ˈdäm
(Carl Peter) Henrik 1895–1976 Danish biochemist

More from Merriam-Webster on dam

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