▪ I. bam, v. slang.
(bæm)
Also 8 bamb.
[Of the same age as bamboozle, of which it appears to be either an abbreviation (cf. the Tatler No. 230 on phizz., hipps., mobb., pozz., rep., ‘and many more’ ‘Refinements of Twenty Years past’), or else the source of its first syllable.]
trans. To hoax, practise on the credulity of, deceive, impose upon, cozen.
| 1738 Swift Polite Conv. i. Wks. (1755) XI. 214 Her ladyship was plaguily bamb'd. 1747 Garrick Miss in Teens ii. i, I'll break a lamp, bully a constable, bam a justice, or bilk a box-keeper, with any man. a 1777 Foote (in Webster), Some conspiracy..to bam, to chouse me out of my money. 1830 Marryat King's Own xlix, Now you're bamming me—don't attempt to put such stories off on your old granny. |
b. absol. or intr. To hoax, impose upon the credulous.
| 1707 Cibber Double Gallant i. ii. (1736) 19 ‘Pray, Sir, what is't you do understand?’ Sound. ‘Bite, Bam, and the best of the Lay, old Boy.’ 1825 R. Ward Tremaine III. xxi. 379, I should say Rector was bamming. 1859 G. Massey in Sat. Rev. 5 Mar., Our greatest of men is Harlequin Pam, ‘The Times’ says so, and ‘the Times’ cannot bam! |
▪ II. bam, n. slang.
[f. prec. vb.]
A story intended to impose upon the credulous; a hoax or imposition.
| 1728 Life & Char. Harvey the Conjuror 21 He called the Profession of a Doctorship, in Physic, a Bamm, upon the World, which is a Bite, in modern Language. 1762 Foote Orators i. i, He is all upon his fun; he lecture! why, 'tis all but a bam. 1815 Scott Guy M. iii, Humble efforts at jocularity chiefly confined to what were then called bites and bams, since denominated hoaxes and quizzes. |
▪ III. bam, int.
(bæm)
[Echoic.]
An interjection imitating the sound of a hard blow.
| 1922 Joyce Ulysses 109 Bam! expires. Gone at last. 1962 Spectator 25 May 674/2 Think of the United States as a 3,000-mile-broad comic strip where significant occasions go bam, pop and zowie. |