lame

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /leɪm/
• Rhymes: -eɪm

• Rhymes: -eɪm
• Hyphenation: lame

From Middle English lame, from Old English lama (“lame”), from Proto-Germanic *lamaz (“lame”), from Proto-Indo-European *lem- (“to crush; fragile”). [1] Akin to German lahm and Dutch lam, Old Norse lami, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian lam, akin to Old Church Slavonic ломити (lomiti, “to break”).

lame (comparative lamer, superlative lamest)

1. Unable to walk properly because of a problem with one's feet or legs.
2. Moving with pain or difficulty on account of injury, defect or temporary obstruction of a function.

   a lame leg, arm or muscle

3. (by extension) Hobbling; limping; inefficient; imperfect.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Barrow

     a lame endeavour

   • c. 1603, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act II scene i:

     O, most lame and impotent conclusion! […]

   • 1801, Isaac Watts, The improvement of the mind, or A supplement to the art of logic

     It is the remark of an ingenious writer, should a barbarous Indian, who had never seen a palace or a ship, view their separate and disjointed parts, and observe the pillars, doors, windows, cornices and turrets of the one, or the prow and stern, the ribs and masts, the ropes and shrouds, the sails and tackle of the other, he would be able to form but a very lame and dark idea of either of those excellent and useful inventions.

4. (slang) Unconvincing or unbelievable.

   He had a really lame excuse for missing the birthday party.

5. (slang) Failing to be cool, funny, interesting or relevant.

   He kept telling these extremely lame jokes all night.

6. (slang) (Should we delete⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) Strangely corny or sweet to an extent.

   I told him not to bring me flowers, so he brought a bunch of carrots instead. It was lame but it made me smile.

Referring to a person without a disability as “lame” is offensive to many as it suggests a derogatory characterization of the physical condition from which the term was derived.

• (unable to walk properly because of a problem with one's feet or legs): crippled
• (moving with difficulty):
• (by extension, hobbling): hobbling, limping, inefficient, imperfect
• (slang, unconvincing): weak, unbelievable
• (slang, failing to be cool, funny, interesting, or relevant): boring, pathetic, uncool, unfunny, uninteresting, irrelevant

• (unable to walk properly because of a problem with one's feet or legs):
• (moving with difficulty):
• (by extension, hobbling): efficient, perfect
• (slang, unconvincing): convincing, believable
• (slang, failing to be cool, funny, interesting, or relevant): cool, funny, interesting, relevant

lame (third-person singular simple present lames, present participle laming, simple past and past participle lamed)

1. (transitive) To cause (a person or animal) to become lame.
   • 1877, Anna Sewell, Black Beauty: And if you don't want to lame your horse you must look sharp and get them [stones stuck in hooves] out quickly.
   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 6

     Now her soul felt lamed in itself. It was her hope that was struck.

lame (plural lames)

1. (prison slang) A stupid or undesirable person.

From Middle French lame, from Latin lamina.

lame (plural lames)

1. A lamina.
2. (in the plural) A set of joined overlapping metal plates.

• lamé

lame (third-person singular simple present lames, present participle laming, simple past and past participle lamed)

1. (obsolete) To shine.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Piers Plowman to this entry?)

• -meal, Elam, Elma, Lema, Malé, alme, amel, leam, lema, male, meal, mela, mela-

From lamama +‎ -e.

lame (genitive lameda, partitive lamedat)

1. flat

Inherited from Latin lāmina, through the accusative lāminam. Doublet of lamine, a borrowing.

• IPA^(key): /lam/

• Audio (Canada, Montréal)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -am
• Homophone: lames

lame f (plural lames)

1. lamina
2. blade
3. wave

• lamé m
• lamer
• lamellaire
• lamelle
• laminer
• lamineur m

• → Italian: lama

• “lame” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• mâle, mêla

Ultimately from Latin lamina. Compare Romansh loma, lama, French lame, Italian and Venetian lama.

lame f (plural lamis)

1. blade

From the English adjective lame.

lame

1. (slang) boring; unimpressive
2. (slang) unskilled; useless

   Ich wollte nicht sagen, dass das was die machen total lame ist.

   I didn’t want to say that what they are doing is totally lame.

• lame in Duden online

lame (plural lames)

1. blade

lame f

1. plural of lama

• alme, male, mela

From French main.

• IPA: [lame]

lame

1. hand

lame f (oblique plural lames, nominative singular lame, nominative plural lames)

1. blade (of a weapon)

• IPA^(key): /ˈlame/

lame

1. Informal second-person singular (tú) affirmative imperative form of lamer.

   ¡Lame mi culo! — “Lick my asshole!”

2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present indicative form of lamer.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present indicative form of lamer.

   Lame. — “[He/she/it] licks.”

lame

1. absolute definite natural masculine form of lam.