Meanings
present singular third person clams up · participle present clamming up · participle past clammed up · past clammed up
- informalintransitiveTo become silent; to stop talking.
Maybe he … or she … was a witness who refused to clam up … a whistle blower …
1986, Paul Chadwick, Concrete: Under the Desert Stars, Dark Horse Books2 more examples
Teenagers' father. Alright, Matt, I think you've made your point. Matt Foley: Dad, I sincerely wish you'd do everyone a great service, and clam up!
1993, “Matt Foley: A Scary Story on Halloween”, in Saturday Night Live, season 19, spoken by Matt Foley (Chris Farley)“You can't clam up on me, punk! I know you're hiding something!” “Okay! Okay! I'm the one taking dumps in the urinals! I call it an "inside the park home run"! (sobbing)” “Smith, good work. Dick, that's a funny name for it.”
2016 June 13, Charles Suozzi, “Gift Me Liberty” (6:11 from the start), in American Dad!, season 13, episode 20, spoken by Stan Smith (Seth MacFarlane)Synonyms: shut up, shut up like a clam
- ambitransitiveTo make or become clammy.
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo become silent; to stop talking.
More synonyms by meaning
verbrefuse to talk or stop talking; fall silent
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
By analogy with a clam closing itself. Compare clamshell (“mouth”), clam (“mouth”).
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Dutch zwijgen, zijn mond houden
- zwijgenbecome silent
- zijn mond houdenbecome silent
Esperanto silenti
- silentibecome silent
Finnish hiljetä
- hiljetäbecome silent
French la fermer, fermer son clapet
- la fermerbecome silent
- fermer son clapetbecome silent
- fermer son claque-merdebecome silent
- la bouclerbecome silent
German schweigen
- schweigenbecome silent
Greek σωπαίνω
- σωπαίνω (sopaíno)become silent
Italian tacere
- tacerebecome silent
Japanese 黙ってしまう
- 黙ってしまう (damatte shimau)become silent
Māori whakangūngū
- whakangūngūbecome silent
Portuguese fechar-se
- fechar-sebecome silent
Russian замолка́ть, замолча́ть
- замолка́ть (zamolkátʹ)become silent
- замолча́ть (zamolčátʹ)become silent
Spanish callarse
- callarsebecome silent
Swedish tiga
- tigabecome silent
Cite this entry
clam up. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/clam%20up
“clam up.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/clam%20up. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “clam up,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/clam%20up.
Source: clam up on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.