Library / English Dictionary

JAM

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: jammed    , jamming   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Deliberate radiation or reflection of electromagnetic energy for the purpose of disrupting enemy use of electronic devices or systems

Synonyms:

electronic jamming; jam; jamming

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("jam" is a kind of...):

ECM; electronic countermeasures (electronic warfare undertaken to prevent or reduce an enemy's effective use of the electromagnetic spectrum)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "jam"):

barrage jamming (electronic jamming over a wide range of frequencies simultaneously)

selective jamming; spot jamming (electronic jamming of a specific channel or frequency)

Derivation:

jam (interfere with or prevent the reception of signals)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Preserve of crushed fruit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("jam" is a kind of...):

conserve; conserves; preserve; preserves (fruit preserved by cooking with sugar)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "jam"):

strawberry jam; strawberry preserves (made with strawberries)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A dense crowd of people

Synonyms:

crush; jam; press

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("jam" is a kind of...):

crowd (a large number of things or people considered together)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "jam"):

snarl-up; traffic jam (a number of vehicles blocking one another until they can scarcely move)

Derivation:

jam (crowd or pack to capacity)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Informal terms for a difficult situation

Example:

he made a muddle of his marriage

Synonyms:

fix; hole; jam; kettle of fish; mess; muddle; pickle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("jam" is a kind of...):

difficulty (a condition or state of affairs almost beyond one's ability to deal with and requiring great effort to bear or overcome)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "jam"):

dog's breakfast; dog's dinner (a poor job; a mess)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Interfere with or prevent the reception of signals

Example:

block the signals emitted by this station

Synonyms:

block; jam

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "jam" is one way to...):

break up; cut off; disrupt; interrupt (make a break in)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "jam"):

barrage jam (jam an entire frequency spectrum)

point jam (jam a narrow band of frequencies)

spot jam (jam a single frequency)

blanket jam (jam a broad spectrum of frequencies to affect all communications in the area except for directional antenna communications)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

jam; jamming (deliberate radiation or reflection of electromagnetic energy for the purpose of disrupting enemy use of electronic devices or systems)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Block passage through

Example:

obstruct the path

Synonyms:

block; close up; impede; jam; obstruct; obturate; occlude

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "jam" is one way to...):

hinder; impede (be a hindrance or obstacle to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "jam"):

back up; choke; choke off; clog; clog up; congest; foul (become or cause to become obstructed)

bar; barricade; block; block off; block up; blockade; stop (render unsuitable for passage)

earth up; land up (block with earth, as after a landslide)

block out; screen (prevent from entering)

dam; dam up (obstruct with, or as if with, a dam)

tie up (restrain from moving or operating normally)

asphyxiate; choke; stifle; suffocate (impair the respiration of or obstruct the air passage of)

barricade (prevent access to by barricading)

barricade; barricado (block off with barricades)

block off; blockade (obstruct access to)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Crush or bruise

Example:

jam a toe

Synonyms:

crush; jam

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "jam" is one way to...):

bruise; contuse (injure the underlying soft tissue or bone of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

Did he jam his foot?

Sense 4

Meaning:

Crowd or pack to capacity

Example:

the theater was jampacked

Synonyms:

chock up; cram; jam; jampack; ram; wad

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "jam" is one way to...):

stuff (cram into a cavity)

Verb group:

cram (put something somewhere so that the space is completely filled)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP
Somebody ----s something with something

Sentence example:

They jam the books into the box

Derivation:

jam (a dense crowd of people)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Get stuck and immobilized

Example:

the mechanism jammed

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "jam" is one way to...):

malfunction; misfunction (fail to function or function improperly)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Sentence example:

They want to jam the doors

Sense 6

Meaning:

Push down forcibly

Example:

The driver jammed the brake pedal to the floor

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "jam" is one way to...):

force; push (move with force)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 7

Meaning:

Press tightly together or cram

Example:

The crowd packed the auditorium

Synonyms:

jam; mob; pack; pile; throng

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "jam" is one way to...):

crowd; crowd together (to gather together in large numbers)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Credits

 Context examples: 

In the meantime the smell of the sweet jam rose to where the flies were sitting in great numbers, and they were attracted and descended on it in hosts.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

I regained the cabin with a store of jams, sea-biscuits, canned meats, and such things,—all I could carry,—and replaced the trap-door.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The Aurora was the first steamboat of the year for the Outside, and her decks were jammed with prosperous adventurers and broken gold seekers, all equally as mad to get to the Outside as they had been originally to get to the Inside.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Maria, in her excitement, jammed the bedroom and bedroom-closet doors together, and for five minutes, through the partly open door, clouds of steam, smelling of soap- suds and dirt, poured into the sick chamber.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Now, this jam shall be blessed by God, cried the little tailor, and give me health and strength; so he brought the bread out of the cupboard, cut himself a piece right across the loaf and spread the jam over it.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The tackles jammed.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

But it was jammed beneath the overturned sled, and by the time Henry had helped him to right the load, One Ear and the she-wolf were too close together and the distance too great to risk a shot.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He inspected each one, lifted it up, put his nose to it, and at length said: The jam seems to me to be good, so weigh me out four ounces, dear woman, and if it is a quarter of a pound that is of no consequence.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)