GAM

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Rhymes with -æm

From Italian gamba (“leg”). Doublet of gamb, gamba, jamb, and jambe. Compare gammon and ham.

dated, slang A person's leg, especially an attractive woman's leg. Make the salesclerk blush by flashing some gam and asking him to mix a bucket in your flesh tone.

Rhymes with -æm

Uncertain but surely formed within English; etymons may include game or gammon.

collective A group of whales, or rarely also of other large sea animals; a pod. Upon getting into a "gam" of whales, this boat, together with that of one of the mates, pulled for a single whale that was seen at a distance from the others, and succeeded in getting square up to their victim unperceived.
broadly A social gathering of whalers (whaling ships). But what is a Gam? You might wear out your index-finger running up and down the columns of dictionaries, and never find the word, Dr. Johnson never attained to that erudition; Noah Webster’s ark does not hold it. Nevertheless, this same expressive word has now for many years been in constant use amo

ambitransitive To pay a social visit on another ship at sea. Although most whalemen looked forward to gamming and enjoyed these ocean-borne gatherings, there were at least a few whalemen who either grew weary of them, or just weary of gamming so often with the same ships over and over.
US, dialectal To engage in social intercourse anywhere.