Adjacent Words

Lame definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

LAME, a.
1. Crippled or disabled in a limb, or otherwise injured so as to be unsound and impaired in strength; as a lame arm or leg, or a person lame in one leg.
2. Imperfect; not satisfactory; as a lame excuse.
3. Hobbling; not smooth; as numbers in verse.
LAME, v.t. To make lame; to cripple or disable; to render imperfect and unsound; as, to lame an arm or a leg.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: pathetically lacking in force or effectiveness; "a feeble excuse"; "a lame argument" [syn: feeble, lame]
2: disabled in the feet or legs; "a crippled soldier"; "a game leg" [syn: crippled, halt, halting, lame, gimpy, game] n
1: someone who doesn't understand what is going on [syn: square, lame]
2: a fabric interwoven with threads of metal; "she wore a gold lame dress" v
1: deprive of the use of a limb, especially a leg; "The accident has crippled her for life" [syn: cripple, lame]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective (lamer; lamest) Etymology: Middle English, from Old English lama; akin to Old High German lam lame, Lithuanian limti to break down Date: before 12th century 1. a. having a body part and especially a limb so disabled as to impair freedom of movement b. marked by stiffness and soreness <a lame shoulder> 2. lacking needful or desirable substance ; weak, ineffectual <a lame excuse> 3. slang not being in the know ; square 4. a. inferior <a lame school> b. contemptible, nasty <lame racist jokes> • lamely adverb • lameness noun II. transitive verb (lamed; laming) Date: 14th century 1. to make lame ; cripple 2. to make weak or ineffective ; disable III. noun Date: 1959 slang a person who is not in the know ; square IV. noun Etymology: Middle French, from Latin lamina Date: circa 1586 1. a thin plate especially of metal ; lamina 2. plural small overlapping steel plates joined to slide on one another (as in medieval armor)

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & v. --adj. 1 disabled, esp. in the foot or leg; limping; unable to walk normally (lame in his right leg). 2 a (of an argument, story, excuse, etc.) unconvincing; unsatisfactory; weak. b (of verse etc.) halting. --v.tr. 1 make lame; disable. 2 harm permanently. Phrases and idioms: lame-brain US colloq. a stupid person. lame duck 1 a disabled or weak person. 2 a defaulter on the Stock Exchange. 3 a firm etc. in financial difficulties. 4 US an official (esp. the President) in the final period of office, after the election of a successor. Derivatives: lamely adv. lameness n. lamish adj. Etymology: OE lama f. Gmc

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Lame Lame, a. [Compar. Lamer; superl. Lamest.] [OE. lame, AS. lama; akin to D. lam, G. lahm,OHG., Dan., & Sw. lam, Icel. lami, Russ. lomate to break, lomota rheumatism.] 1. (a) Moving with pain or difficulty on account of injury, defect, or temporary obstruction of a function; as, a lame leg, arm, or muscle. (b) To some degree disabled by reason of the imperfect action of a limb; crippled; as, a lame man. ``Lame of one leg.'' --Arbuthnot. ``Lame in both his feet.'' --2 Sam. ix. 13. ``He fell, and became lame.'' --2 Sam. iv. 4. 2. Hence, hobbling; limping; inefficient; imperfect. ``A lame endeavor.'' --Barrow. O, most lame and impotent conclusion! --Shak. Lame duck (stock Exchange), a person who can not fulfill his contracts. [Cant]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Lame Lame, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Lamed; p. pr. & vb. n. Laming.] To make lame. If you happen to let child fall and lame it. --Swift.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(lamer, lamest) 1. If someone is lame, they are unable to walk properly because of damage to one or both of their legs. He was aware that she was lame in one leg... David had to pull out of the Championships when his horse went lame. ADJ • The lame are people who are lame. ... the wounded and the lame of the last war. N-PLURAL: the N 2. If you describe something, for example an excuse, argument, or remark, as lame, you mean that it is poor or weak. He mumbled some lame excuse about having gone to sleep... All our theories sound pretty lame. = weak, feeble ADJ • lamely 'Lovely house,' I said lamely. ADV: ADV with v

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

lam (piceach, nakheh; cholos):

(1) The condition of being unable or imperfectly able to walk, which unfitted any descendant of Aaron so afflicted for service in the priesthood (Le 21:18), and rendered an animal unsuitable for sacrifice (De 15:21). The offering of animals so blemished was one of the sins with which Malachi charges the negligent Jews of his time (Mal 1:8-13).

(2) Those who suffered from lameness, such as Mephibosheth, whose limbs were injured by a fall in childhood (2Sa 4:4; 9:3). In the prophetic description of the completeness of the victory of the returning Israelites, it is predicted that the lame shall be made whole and shall leap like a hart (Jer 3:18; Isa 35:6). The unfitness of the lame for warfare gives point to the promise that the lame shall take the prey (Isa 33:23). Job in his graphic description of his helpfulness to the weak before his calamity says, "And feet was I to the lame" (Job 29:15). The inequality of the legs of the lame is used in Pr 26:7 as a similitude of the ineptness with which a fool uses a parable.

In the enigmatical and probably corrupt passage describing David's capture of Jerusalem, the lame and blind are mentioned twice. In 2Sa 5:6 it was a taunt on the part of the Jebusites that even a garrison of cripples would suffice to keep out the Israelites. The allusion in 5:8 may be read, "Whosoever smiteth the Jebusites let him .... slay both the lame and blind, which hate David's soul" as it is in Septuagint. The Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) says, "David had offered a reward on that day to the man who should smite the Jebusite and reach the water pipes of the houses, and remove the blind and lame who hated David's soul." It is possible, however, that Budde's emendation is more correct and that it is a threat against the indiscriminate slaughter of the Jebusites: "Whoso slayeth a Jebusite shall bring his neck into peril; the lame and blind are not hated of David's soul." The proverbial saying quoted in 5:8 cannot be correct as rendered in the King James Version, for we read in Mt 21:14 that the lame came to our Lord in the temple and were healed.

The healing of the lame by our Lord is recorded in Mt 11:5; 15:30,31; 21:14; Lu 7:22; 14:13. For the apostolic miracles of healing the lame, see CRIPPLE. In Heb 12:13 the Christians are counseled to courage under chastisement, lest their despair should cause that which is lame to be "turned out of the way."

Alexander Macalister

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. 1. Crippled, halt, hobbling. 2. Defective, imperfect. 3. Insufficient, unsatisfactory, weak, feeble, poor. II. v. a. Cripple, make lame.

Moby Thesaurus

abortive, awkward, bad, bootless, bugger, burden, castrate, castrated, clumsy, cramp, cripple, crippled, cumber, de-energize, debilitate, disable, disabled, disenable, drain, emasculate, emasculated, embarrass, encumber, enfeeble, enmesh, ensnarl, entangle, entoil, entrammel, entrap, entwine, failed, failing, feeble, fetter, flimsy, fruitless, futile, game, half-baked, halt, halting, hamper, hamstring, hamstrung, handicap, handicapped, hobble, hobbled, hobbling, hors de combat, impaired, impede, inactivate, incapacitate, incapacitated, ineffective, ineffectual, inefficacious, involve, kibosh, lime, limping, lumber, maim, maimed, manque, miscarried, miscarrying, net, of no effect, poor, press down, put, queer, queer the works, sabotage, saddle with, shackle, snarl, spavined, spike, stickit, stillborn, successless, tangle, thin, toil, trammel, unconvincing, unfit, unfortunate, unsuccessful, useless, weak, weaken, weigh down, wing, wreck