adjective, lam·er, lam·est.
- crippled or physically disabled, especially in the foot or leg so as to limp or walk with difficulty.
- impaired or disabled through defect or injury: a lame arm.
- weak; inadequate; unsatisfactory; clumsy: a lame excuse.
- Slang. out of touch with modern fads or trends; unsophisticated.
verb (used with object), lamed, lam·ing.
- to make lame or defective.
noun
- Slang. a person who is out of touch with modern fads or trends, especially one who is unsophisticated.
noun
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- a fabric of silk, cotton, or wool interwoven with threads of metal
- (as modifier)a gold lamé gown
adjective
- disabled or crippled in the legs or feet
- painful or weaka lame back
- weak; unconvincinga lame excuse
- not effective or enthusiastica lame try
- US slang conventional or uninspiring
verb
- (tr) to make lame
noun
- one of the overlapping metal plates used in armour after about 1330; splint
adv.1590s, from lame (adj.) + -ly (2). n.“silk interwoven with metallic threads,” 1922, from French lame, earlier “thin metal plate (especially in armor), gold wire; blade; wave (of the sea),” from Middle French lame, from Latin lamina, lamna “thin piece or flake of metal.” adj.Old English lama “crippled, lame; paralytic, weak,” from Proto-Germanic *lamon (cf. Old Norse lami, Dutch and Old Frisian lam, German lahm “lame”), “weak-limbed,” literally “broken,” from PIE root *lem- “to break; broken,” with derivatives meaning “crippled” (cf. Old Church Slavonic lomiti “to break,” Lithuanian luomas “lame”). In Middle English, “crippled in the feet,” but also “crippled in the hands; disabled by disease; maimed.” Sense of “socially awkward” is attested from 1942. Noun meaning “crippled persons collectively” is in late Old English. v.“to make lame,” c.1300, from lame (adj.). Related: Lamed; laming. adj.
- Disabled so that movement, especially walking, is difficult or impossible.
- Marked by pain or rigidness.
v.
- To cause to become lame; cripple.