beclam

B3E1C3L1A1M3

verb

To beclog with anything clammy or sticky.

OriginMiddle English *beclammen ← Old English beclæmman ← Proto-West Germanic *biklammjan →
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Meanings

verbbeclam (third-person singular simple present beclams, present participle beclamming, simple past and past participle beclammed)

present singular third person beclams · participle present beclamming · participle past beclammed · past beclammed

  1. dialectaltransitiveTo beclog with anything clammy or sticky.

    In short I feel all over me like a bird whose plumage is beclammed and wings glued to its body with bird-lime.

    1889, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Letters from the Lake Poets, page 172

Origin

  1. Proto-West Germanic*biklammjan
  2. Old Englishbeclæmman
  3. Middle English*beclammen
  4. Englishbeclam

From Middle English *beclammen, from Old English beclæmman, beclemman, from Proto-West Germanic *biklammjan, equivalent to be- + clam. Cognate with West Frisian beklamme, beklamje, Dutch beklemmen, German Low German beklemmen, German beklemmen.

More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-West Germanic

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

McBealmalbecbecalm
Cite this entry
APA

beclam. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beclam

MLA

“beclam.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beclam. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “beclam,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beclam.

Source: beclam on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.