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LAME
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A fabric interwoven with threads of metal
Example:
she wore a gold lame dress
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("lame" is a kind of...):
cloth; fabric; material; textile (artifact made by weaving or felting or knitting or crocheting natural or synthetic fibers)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Someone who doesn't understand what is going on
Synonyms:
lame; square
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("lame" is a kind of...):
simple; simpleton (a person lacking intelligence or common sense)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Disabled in the feet or legs
Example:
a game leg
Synonyms:
crippled; game; gimpy; halt; halting; lame
Classified under:
Similar:
unfit (not in good physical or mental condition; out of condition)
Derivation:
lameness (disability of walking due to crippling of the legs or feet)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Pathetically lacking in force or effectiveness
Example:
a lame argument
Synonyms:
feeble; lame
Classified under:
Similar:
weak (wanting in physical strength)
Derivation:
lameness (an imperfection or defectiveness)
III. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they lame ... he / she / it lames
Past simple: lamed
Past participle: lamed
-ing form: laming
Sense 1
Meaning:
Deprive of the use of a limb, especially a leg
Example:
The accident has crippled her for life
Synonyms:
cripple; lame
Classified under:
Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care
Hypernyms (to "lame" is one way to...):
maim (injure or wound seriously and leave permanent disfiguration or mutilation)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "lame"):
hamstring (cripple by cutting the hamstring)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Context examples:
He was stiff and lame from the incessant fighting.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
When they had gone forth, he went into the stable, and led the horse out; it was lame of one foot, and limped hobblety jib, hobblety jib; nevertheless he mounted it, and rode away to the dark forest.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
In the meanwhile the lame horse recovered so fast, that the party to Box Hill was again under happy consideration; and at last Donwell was settled for one day, and Box Hill for the next,—the weather appearing exactly right.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
“You like them then,” the lame artist cried, in answer to the look of pleasure and of surprise in their faces.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
On the fourth day, lame and sore, scarcely able to see, so closed were his eyes, he was haled from his bunk by the nape of the neck and set to his duty.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Beth took an observation of the new boys and decided that the lame one was not 'dreadful', but gentle and feeble, and she would be kind to him on that account.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Your eyes dwell on a Vulcan,—a real blacksmith, brown, broad-shouldered: and blind and lame into the bargain.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
However, about ten days before their death, which they seldom fail in computing, they return the visits that have been made them by those who are nearest in the neighbourhood, being carried in a convenient sledge drawn by Yahoos; which vehicle they use, not only upon this occasion, but when they grow old, upon long journeys, or when they are lamed by any accident: and therefore when the dying Houyhnhnms return those visits, they take a solemn leave of their friends, as if they were going to some remote part of the country, where they designed to pass the rest of their lives.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
And when I'm too deaf, and too lame, and too blind, and too mumbly for want of teeth, to be of any use at all, even to be found fault with, than I shall go to my Davy, and ask him to take me in.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
It was now the middle of June, and the weather fine; and Mrs. Elton was growing impatient to name the day, and settle with Mr. Weston as to pigeon-pies and cold lamb, when a lame carriage-horse threw every thing into sad uncertainty.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
