glom on

present singular third person gloms on · participle present glomming on · participle past glommed on · past glommed on · alternative glomb on · alternative glomp on

1. intransitiveslangTo attach oneself to something.

   But as Siri’s many noted missteps attest, a computer really has no idea what you’re talking about. It breaks your speech down, gloms on to keywords and makes a good guess at what you’re asking.

   2016 October 8, Sally Adee, “It’s just common sense”, in New Scientist, number 3094, page 22

2. intransitiveTo comprehend something.

   Engineers began to glom on to the idea that properly laid crushed rock, interlocked in a particular way at the base of a road, could do much of what the metal reinforcement did — namely hold the structural integrity of the roadway but at a lower overall cost.

   2015 October 10, Dan Lett, “Building great roads poses great challenge. Can science, planning finally trump Mother Nature, financial pressures?”, in The Free Press (Winnipeg)

   Synonyms: cotton on