Definition of "jam"

jam¹

/ˈd͡ʒæm/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural jams
1. (less common in the US) A sweet mixture of fruit boiled with sugar and allowed to congeal. Often spread on bread or toast or used in jam tarts.
2. (countable) A difficult situation.
  Quotations
  It's a blackmail ring, and the district attorneys get a share of the loot. […] Well, they got him in the same kind of jam, and soaked him to the tune of three hundred and eighty-six thousand.
  1928, Upton Sinclair, Boston
  She was married when we first met / Soon to be divorced / I helped her out of a jam, I guess / But I used a little too much force
  1975, Bob Dylan (lyrics and music), “Tangled Up in Blue”
  Where, where is my common sense? / How did I get in a jam like this?
  1977, David Byrne (lyrics and music), “Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town”, in Talking Heads: 77, performed by Talking Heads
  1. (countable, baseball) A difficult situation for a pitcher or defending team.
3. (countable) A blockage, congestion, or immobilization.
  Quotations
  According to Boeing, in the history of this elevator design (which exists on all Boeing DC-9/MD-80 series and 717 model airplanes), this accident was the first notification that Boeing had received of an elevator jam occurring on an airplane exposed to ground gusts lower than 65 kts. Boeing noted that the elevator design first entered service in 1965 on the then-Douglas DC-9 airplane.
  2019 February 14, National Transportation Safety Board, “1.3.2.3 Elevator Design Standard for Ground Gust Loads”, in Aircraft Accident Report: Runway Overrun During Rejected Takeoff, Ameristar Air Cargo, Inc., dba Ameristar Charters, flight 9363, Boeing MD-83, N786TW, Ypsilanti, Michigan, March 8, 2017‎, archived from the original on 2 July 2022, page 12
4. (countable, popular music) An informal, impromptu performance or rehearsal.
5. (countable, by extension, informal) A song; a track.
  Quotations
  The result is an outstanding assortment of sophisticated, sexy and hip-hop-tinged R&B grooves, ballads and party jams.
  2001, Jet, volume 100, number 22, page 25
6. (countable, by extension) An informal event where people brainstorm and collaborate on projects.
  Quotations
  […] a day at new Farm Park with an art jam, fursuit games, and a nerf war, ending in the evening at the strike Wintergarden bowling center.
  2017, Fred Patten, Furry Fandom Conventions, 1989-2015, page 92
7. (countable, slang) That which one particularly prefers, desires, enjoys, or cares about.
8. (countable, basketball) A forceful dunk.
9. (countable, roller derby) A play during which points can be scored.
10. (climbing, countable) Any of several maneuvers requiring wedging of an extremity into a tight space.
11. (Australia) The tree Acacia acuminata, with fruity-smelling hard timber.
12. (UK, slang) Luck.
13. (Canada, slang) balls, bollocks, courage, machismo
14. (slang) Sexual relations or the contemplation of them.
verb
third-person singular simple present jams, present participle jamming, simple past and past participle jammed
1. To get something stuck, often (though not necessarily) in a confined space.
  Quotations
  The Ship, which by its Building was Spanish, stuck fast, jaum’d in between two Rocks; all the Stern and Quarter of her was beaten to Pieces with the Sea […]
  1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], 3rd edition, London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], published 1719, page 226
2. To brusquely force something into a space; to cram, to squeeze.
  Quotations
  Since the new post-horse tax, I dare engage / That some folks here have travell’d in the Stage: / Jamm’d in at midnight, in cold winter weather, / The crouded passengers are glew’d together.
  1779, George Colman, Farewell Epilogue, spoken at Wynnstay after the representation of Cymbeline and The Spanish Barber, 22 January, 1779, in Prose on Several Occasions: Accompanied with Some Pieces in Verse, London: T. Cadel, 1787, Volume 3, p. 283
3. To render something unable to move.
  Quotations
  Considering the results of the CFD wind simulation, the NTSB designed several series of static and dynamic elevator load tests to determine what conditions, consistent with the known circumstances of the accident, could enable the inboard actuating crank and links of the right elevator's geared tab to move beyond their normal range of travel and become locked in an overcenter position (and, as a result, jam the right elevator).
  2019 February 14, National Transportation Safety Board, “2.3.3 Elevator Load Testing”, in Aircraft Accident Report: Runway Overrun During Rejected Takeoff, Ameristar Air Cargo, Inc., dba Ameristar Charters, flight 9363, Boeing MD-83, N786TW, Ypsilanti, Michigan, March 8, 2017‎, archived from the original on 2 July 2022, page 56
4. To cause congestion or blockage. Often used with "up".
5. To block or confuse a radio or radar signal by transmitting a more-powerful signal on the same frequency.
6. (baseball) To throw a pitch at or near the batter's hands.
7. (basketball) To dunk.
8. (music) To play music (especially improvisation as a group, or an informal unrehearsed session).
9. To injure a finger or toe by sudden compression of the digit's tip.
10. (roller derby) To attempt to score points.
11. (nautical, transitive) To bring (a vessel) so close to the wind that half her upper sails are laid aback.
  Quotations
  It won't do to jam her,” answered Stone ;" but it might be worth findin' out if th' Hope won't lie closer than t' other can." Half a point ----"
  , William Clark Russell, The Golden Hope
12. (Canada, informal) To give up on a date or some other joint endeavour; to stand up, chicken out, jam out.
13. (colloquial) To be of high quality.

jam²

/ˈd͡ʒæm/

noun
plural jams
1. (dated) A kind of frock for children.

jam³

/ˈd͡ʒæm/

noun
plural jams
1. (mining) Alternative form of jamb

Definition of "jam"

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jam2

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