noun
- a hasty escape; flight.
verb (used without object), lammed, lam·ming.
- to run away quickly; escape; flee: I’m going to lam out of here as soon as I’ve finished.
Idioms
- on the lam, escaping, fleeing, or hiding, especially from the police: He’s been on the lam ever since he escaped from jail.
- take it on the lam, to flee or escape in great haste: The swindler took it on the lam and was never seen again.
verb lams, lamming or lammed slang
- (tr) to thrash or beat
- (intr; usually foll by into or out) to make a sweeping stroke or blow
noun
- a sudden flight or escape, esp to avoid arrest
- on the lam
- making an escape
- in hiding
verb lams, lamming or lammed
- (intr) to escape or flee
n.“flight,” as in on the lam, 1897, from a U.S. slang verb meaning “to run off” (1886), of uncertain origin, perhaps somehow from the first element of lambaste, which was used in British student slang for “beat” since 1590s; if so, it would give the word the same etymological sense as the slang expression beat it. see on the lam.