pam

plural pams

1. countableuncountableThe jack of clubs in loo played with hands of 5 cards.
2. uncountableA card game, similar to napoleon, in which the jack of clubs is the highest trump.

plural pams

1. datedartsA panorama.

   The tripod used on a pam prevents any of that disturbing vertical shake which is so obvious in hand-held slow pams.

   1934, Frank Roy Fraprie, American Photography, volume 28, page 240

present singular third person pams · participle present pamming · participle past pammed · past pammed

1. datedartsTo pan a camera in order to show a panorama.

   The institution is "pammed" from a nearby hill-top, followed by close-ups of the various buildings.

   1932, Educational Screen - Volumes 11-12, page 141

   5 more examples

   In this case the field was laid out in segments, and after the camera had been pammed about ten degrees it was stopped and the whole outfit moved over into the next segment, and so on round for ninety degrees;

   1918, Edward Jewitt Wheeler, Frank Crane, Current Opinion - Volume 64, page 331

   The camera man, in turn, when he had filmed the accident, pammed — the outrageous word "pam" means panorama — immediately to the sheriff in the hope that he would shoot.

   1918, Rob Wagner, Film Folk

   At one time he ordered a panorama effect, in which the cameras “pammed,” swept from one side to the other, giving a succession of faces at close range.

   1921, Arthur Benjamin Reeve, The Film Mystery, page 347

   The mechanism for taking the pictures with these markers on the original film and record can not be operated in quite so simple a manner, since the camera must be left free to be “pammed"—that is, moved about on its tripod to change the field of view.

   1925, Bell Laboratories Record - Volumes 1-2

   This equipment has a distance range of 12,000 feet, and a height range of 750 feet and b, one camera is located 1500 feet from the runway and is "pammed" to follow the airplane.

   1947, The SAE Journal - Volume 55, page 46

1. USCooking spray.

plural pams

1. alternativedatedhistoricalAlternative form of palmo (“traditional Spanish and Portuguese units of measure”).

1. A diminutive of the female given name Pamela.

   The Senate voted Tuesday night to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general, making the tenacious litigator the latest official to help fill out President Donald Trump’s administration.

   2025 February 4, Shania Shelton and Morgan Rimmer, “Senate votes to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general”, in CNN

2. UKhistoricalslangNickname for Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston.

   In October 1865, the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, died in office two days before his 81st birthday. 'Old Pam' had been a member of every government since 1807, […]

   2004, Matthew J. B. Campbell, Jacqueline M. Labbe, Sally Shuttleworth, Memory and Memorials, page 64

1. abbreviationhistoricalinitialismInitialism of Policy Analysis Market.

plural PAMs

1. abbreviationcountableuncountablebusinessAbbreviation of power amplitude modulation.
2. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablecomputingInitialism of pluggable authentication module.
3. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablemedicineInitialism of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis.
4. abbreviationacronymcountableuncountablespace flightAcronym of payload assist module.
5. abbreviationacronymcountableuncountableAcronym of polycatenated architected material