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dam
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
dam
I.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
big
▪ A previous California resources secretary proposed building bigger dams on California's rivers as a solution to the water crisis.
▪ We had few big dams in California then.
▪ At one time my major ambition was to have my father buy me an excavator so that I could make really big dams.
dental
▪ So it's no wonder that we have heard very little about dental dams.
▪ She and her partner, woman or man, need to know about dental dams.
▪ Yet in Manchester, where I live, there is no freely available information about outlets for dental dams.
high
▪ There was the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, an almost sheer thousand-foot gorge with several sites for high dams.
▪ At 357 feet high, the dam has grown by nearly a third.
▪ The problem with a high dam, however, was Congress.
▪ A high dam would end their migration, irrevocably.
▪ It was not, however, a foundation for a low dam-it was the foundation of a high dam.
▪ In the beginning, before construction began, a high dam was out of the question.
hydroelectric
▪ Reservoirs, rivers and snowpack are too low to power hydroelectric dams without further imperiling endangered salmon runs.
▪ It has also promised not to build any new hydroelectric dams, the source of the rest of the country's electricity.
ilisu
▪ The decision on the Ilisu dam project would be the test case of its efficacy.
▪ However, the local Kurds and outside pressure groups claim that the Ilisu dam would inundate much of the area including Hasankeyf.
large
▪ It documented the huge social costs of large dams, with up to 80m people dispossessed and millions more impoverished.
▪ A very, very large dam.
▪ In this chapter we shall examine the diffusion of three technologies to developing countries: microcomputers, hand pumps and large dams.
▪ The largest arch support dam in the world, it measured nearly two hundred feet high and some two hundred feet long.
▪ Its largest dam is San Luis in central California; its most magnificent dam is Hoover.
low
▪ The Bureau, however, was not interested in a low dam.
▪ At that point, there was no question of intent; a low dam was specifically mentioned in the appropriation.
▪ The contract also specified a low dam.
new
▪ Between 150 and 175 new dams will be needed.
▪ So you threw up on their new dam.
▪ Hundreds of new dams, diversions and canals are planned.
▪ Beavers were making new dams in alfalfa fields.
▪ It has also promised not to build any new hydroelectric dams, the source of the rest of the country's electricity.
■ NOUN
ice
▪ Big, long icicles hanging from the eaves are not necessarily a sign of ice dams.
▪ I am concerned about ice dams.
▪ On houses with cold roofs, that melting occurs from the top down, without ice dams.
▪ On houses with warm roofs, the melting occurs from the bottom up, creating the ice dam.
▪ I have no icicles and no ice dam, but the snow must be three feet deep on my roof.
▪ And, it causes ice dams on a few unfortunate abodes.
▪ With ice dams come leaks through the roof into the attic and through ceilings, staining them and often doing more damage.
▪ So, you wait, doing things later that will prevent ice dams in the future.
project
▪ In other countries smaller dam projects have created bodies of water in which mosquitoes thrive.
▪ Following widespread protests the government announced the cancellation of the dam project in early March.
▪ And the Government declared the dam project illegal - in spite of its expressed faith in co-operative ventures.
▪ The decision on the Ilisu dam project would be the test case of its efficacy.
■ VERB
build
▪ We can build dams, like the beaver, without love.
▪ Mulholland, of course, knew this, but still refused to build the dam at Long Valley.
▪ It has also promised not to build any new hydroelectric dams, the source of the rest of the country's electricity.
▪ But it made no better sense, Johnson quickly added, for the Corps to build the dam instead.
▪ Our churches and cathedrals rot while we build dams and factories to worship as objects.
▪ It was quite another thing to build a dam, store the water, and make the desert bloom.
▪ He was absolutely convinced that building a dam in Yosemite Valley was the proper thing to do.
▪ The engineers would build the dam and the irrigation features and walk away from it.
complete
▪ Environmentalists fear that, if completed, the hydro-electric dam will severely disrupt the Danube ecosystem.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
the Kariba Dam
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ the Hoover Dam in Nevada
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A dam had saved the lake and its fish.
▪ A high dam would end their migration, irrevocably.
▪ Big, long icicles hanging from the eaves are not necessarily a sign of ice dams.
▪ He was absolutely convinced that building a dam in Yosemite Valley was the proper thing to do.
▪ The dam was finished and in service by September of 1941, an unbelievable sight.
▪ The dams etc may also have been designed to attract industry and so benefit the country in the long term.
▪ Work on the dam began in 1983 but was held up by economic and environmental objections.
II.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
up
▪ Kidneys clog with protein from damaged muscles, damming up toxins in the blood.
■ NOUN
river
▪ The contrasurvival engram is to the dynamics like a log jam which dams a necessary river.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ The East Branch River was dammed in 1952.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ In 1933, the Columbia was by far the biggest river anyone had ever dreamed about damming.
▪ Kidneys clog with protein from damaged muscles, damming up toxins in the blood.
▪ The Northwest had plenty of smaller rivers, much more easily dammed.
▪ The Stanislaus River is dammed fourteen times on its short run to the sea.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Dam

Dam \Dam\, n. [Akin to OLG., D., & Dan. dam, G. & Sw. damm, Icel. dammr, and AS. fordemman to stop up, Goth. Fa['u]rdammjan.]

  1. A barrier to prevent the flow of a liquid; esp., a bank of earth, or wall of any kind, as of masonry or wood, built across a water course, to confine and keep back flowing water.

  2. (Metal.) A firebrick wall, or a stone, which forms the front of the hearth of a blast furnace.

    Dam plate (Blast Furnace), an iron plate in front of the dam, to strengthen it.

Dam

Dam \Dam\ (d[a^]m), n. [OE. dame mistress, lady; also, mother, dam. See Dame.]

  1. A female parent; -- used of beasts, especially of quadrupeds; sometimes applied in contempt to a human mother.

    Our sire and dam, now confined to horses, are a relic of this age (13th century) . . . .Dame is used of a hen; we now make a great difference between dame and dam.
    --T. L. K. Oliphant.

    The dam runs lowing up and down, Looking the way her harmless young one went.
    --Shak.

  2. A king or crowned piece in the game of draughts.

Dam

Dam \Dam\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dammed (d[a^]md); p. pr. & vb. n. Damming.]

  1. To obstruct or restrain the flow of, by a dam; to confine by constructing a dam, as a stream of water; -- generally used with in or up.

    I'll have the current in this place dammed up.
    --Shak.

    A weight of earth that dams in the water.
    --Mortimer.

  2. To shut up; to stop up; to close; to restrain.

    The strait pass was dammed With dead men hurt behind, and cowards.
    --Shak.

    To dam out, to keep out by means of a dam.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
dam

"water barrier," early 14c., probably from Old Norse dammr or Middle Dutch dam, both from Proto-Germanic *dammaz (cognates: Old Frisian damm, German Damm), which is of unknown origin.

dam

"animal mother," c.1300, variant of dame (q.v.), also originally used, like that word, for "lady, mother;" but meanings diverged into separate spellings by 16c.

dam

late 15c., from dam (n.1). Related: Dammed; damming.

Wiktionary
dam

Etymology 1 n. A structure placed across a flowing body of water to stop the flow. vb. To block the flow of water. Etymology 2

n. 1 Female parent, mother, generally regarding breeding of animals (correlative to sire). 2 A kind of crowned piece in the game of draughts.

Related phrases:
WordNet
dam

  1. n. a barrier constructed to contain the flow of water or to keep out the sea [syn: dike, dyke, levee]

  2. a metric unit of length equal to ten meters [syn: decameter, dekameter, decametre, dekametre, dkm]

  3. female parent of an animal especially domestic livestock

  4. [also: damming, dammed]

dam

  1. v. obstruct with, or as if with, a dam; "dam the gorges of the Yangtse River" [syn: dam up]

  2. [also: damming, dammed]

Related phrases:
Gazetteer
Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Dam

A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aquaculture, and navigability. Hydropower is often used in conjunction with dams to generate electricity. A dam can also be used to collect water or for storage of water which can be evenly distributed between locations. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees (also known as dikes) are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions.

The word dam can be traced back to Middle English, and before that, from Middle Dutch, as seen in the names of many old cities.

Dam (disambiguation)

A dam is a barrier obstructing flowing water. Dam may also refer to:

Dam (Indian coin)

A Dam was a small Indian copper coin. The coin was first introduced by Sher Shah Suri during his rule of India between 1540 and 1545, along with Mohur, the gold coin and Rupiya the silver coin Later on, the Mughal Emperors standardised the coin along with other silver ( Rupiya) and gold ( Mohur) coins in order to consolidate the monetary system across India.

Watch Your Language lists the coin as one of the possible sources for the English phrase “I don't give a dam[n]″, due to its small worth, but provides other sources as well.

Dam (agricultural reservoir)

A dam often refers to a water reservoir in the ground, confined by a barrier, embankment or excavation on a pastoral property or similar. The term is found widely in Australian English and New Zealand English, and is also found in several other English dialects such as that of Yorkshire.

The term can be found in the old English folk song Three Jolly Rogues

"... The miller was drowned in his dam; The weaver was hung by his yarn. ..."

The expression "farm dam" has this meaning unambiguously, and where the barrier or embankment is intended, it may be referred to as the "dam wall".

Dam (band)

Dam are an English extreme metal band from London, formed in 1997. The band's music, heavily influenced by early-1990s death metal, can be characterised as a fusion of death metal, black metal, and thrash metal, with some hints of progressive rock and heavy metal. The band describe their style as extreme metal.

After releasing three demos, Dam signed with Candlelight Records and released two albums, with guest contributions by musicians from Akercocke, Ted Maul, Guapo, DHG, Indesinence and Gorerotted. They have toured with bands such as Decapitated, Gorerotted, Napalm Death and Testament.

DAM (chemotherapy)

DAM in the context of chemotherapy is an acronym that means a chemotherapy regimen most often used as an induction regimen in acute myelogenous leukemia, usually for those who are refractory to the standard " 7+3" induction regimen or who has relapsed. But this regimen also can be used as primary, first-line induction therapy.

The DAM regimen consists of:

  1. (D)aunorubicin - an anthracycline antibiotic that is able to intercalate DNA, thus disrupting cell division and preventing mitosis;
  2. (A)ra-C (cytarabine) - an antimetabolite;
  3. (M)ercaptopurine - another antimetabolite.
Related phrases:

Usage examples of "dam".

The agribusiness was thriving in that part of the state, and ever since the Copa de Oro Dam had been constructed in the late Sixties, the recreation dollars had been piling up, too.

On the opposite side of a narrow valley, through which runs Beaver Dam Creek, rises a bold, almost precipitous, bluff, and the road which the Confederates were compelled to take bends abruptly to the right when near the stream, thus exposing the flank of the assaulting party to a fire from the bluff.

A great deal of water, remarked the brief, bitterish smile, would have to go over the dam before Phyllis Dexter--dimpled and rosy and twenty-three--could realize what it meant to have a double handful of deep-rooted fixations ripped out of your viscera or wherever they were located, and every dangling, aching, red nerve fibre of them coolly examined under a microscope.

It was behind this monstrous trapezoidal gateway that the horror was building, as water builds behind a weakening dam a soft, shifting, bodiless evil, an unspeakable eruption into the land of the living from out of black abysses of space and time.

Nelson Bookman got almost all that new water made possible by the dam going into that beanfield acreage you been buying up over on the west side for a golf course ever since the 1935 water compact killed all the little farmers over there.

Like a torrent bursting through a broached dam, the Warden dispatched sequential images unveiling the full course of events.

Ralph had walked up the Dam Side near to that point at which the Covel Cross lies to the left, when a couple of drunken men came reeling out of a tavern in front of him.

Arthur and I walked up the cwm where he admired the newly-pleached hedges, the trimmed apple trees and the small fish pool we had dammed into the stream.

They wanted to hurt us, because we helped Daine hunt the humans who killed her dam.

When the Tiyalor dammed the river at leor they inconvenienced us, but held Cayd by the throat.

He told us the valley is to be dammed and made into a lake for urban water supply.

There is apparently some scheme for damming the valley and utilising the waters for a hydro-electric project.

Canadian court is going to grant you an injunction against the damming up of a useless bit of territory like this.

A thousand of these fish, which measured about two feet and a half in length, came up the river, and a large quantity were retained by fixing dams across the stream.

The colonists worked with a will, and the two dams which besides did not exceed eight feet in width by three in height, were rapidly erected by means of well-cemented blocks of stone.