| 释义 |
▪ I. cram, v.|kræm|
Forms: 1 crammian, 4–5 crom, 4–7 cramm(e, 5 cremmyn, 6 cromme, 6–7 crame, 7 crambe, 7–8 cramb, 6– cram.
[OE. crammian (:—*krammôjan), deriv. of the strong vb. crimman, cram(m), crummen to insert; cf. OHG. krimman, chrimman to press, pinch, scratch, and its deriv. Ger. Dial. krammen to claw, also ON. kremja (kramði, kramið or kramd) to squeeze, bruise, pinch (:—*kram(m)jan), Sw. krama to squeeze, press, strain. The primary meaning was ‘to press, squeeze’: cf. also cramp. The 15th c. variant cremm-yn appears to be from Norse.
Some of the dialects preserve senses more akin to those in the continental languages; cf. the following:
1866Edmondston Shetland Gloss., Cram, to scratch severely with the finger-nails. 1886S.W. Linc. Gloss., Cram, to crumple, tumble, disarrange. ‘Look how my dress is crammed’.]
1. trans. To fill (a receptacle) with more than it properly or conveniently holds, by force or compression; less strictly, to fill to repletion, fill quite full or overfull, ‘pack’. Const. with.
c1000ælfric Gram. (Z.) 190 Farcio, ic crammiᵹe oððe fylle. c1386Chaucer Pard. Prol. 20 My longe cristal stoones I-crammed ful of cloutes and of boones. c1440Promp. Parv. 101 Cremmyn, or stuffyn, farcino, repleo. 1583Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 54 Thee gats ar cramd with an armye. 1635E. Pagitt Christianogr. 231 Till hee had drained them dry to crambe his own Coffers. 1662Pepys Diary 31 Dec., The room where the ball was to be, crammed with fine ladies. 1812Examiner 14 Sept. 592/1 Every avenue leading to the fair was crammed. 1889Boy's Own Paper 17 Aug. 730/2 The boisterous party of us that crammed a double compartment.
b. intr. with passive sense. rare.
a1763J. Byrom Poems (1773) I. 11 The Coach was full as it could cram.
2. esp. To feed with excess of food (spec. poultry, etc., to fatten them for the table); to overfeed, stuff, fill to satiety.
c1325Pol. Songs (Camden) 238 The knave crommeth is crop. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. i. 42 Tyl hure bagge and hure bely were bretful ycrammyd. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 169 [Pigeons] must be crammed in such sort as you cramme Capons. 1630R. Brathwait Eng. Gentlem. (1641) 86 Wee were not created onely to cramme our selves. 1661Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. Introd., Those that feed themselves abroad..are of better nourishment, than such as are cram'd in a coop. 1756C. Lucas Ess. Waters III. 144 The infant..stuffed and crammed with paps and puddings. 1830Scott Jrnl. 27 June, The little garden where I was crammed with gooseberries. 1837M. Donovan Dom. Econ. II. 75 In the Society Islands, dogs were crammed, as poultry with us, for the sake of improving their flesh.
b. intr. (for refl.) To eat greedily or to excess, to stuff oneself; to ‘stuff’.
1609Rowlands Knave of Clubbes 24 And so againe crammes in, As if a fortnight he had fasting bin. 1634Heywood Witches of Lanc. iv. Wks. 1874 IV. 219 Such a bevy of beldames..cramming like so many Cormorants. 1634Milton Comus 779. 1785–95 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Lousiad ii. Wks. I. 235 Madam Schwellenberg, inclined to cram, Was wond'rous busy o er a plate of ham.
3. fig. (trans.) To fill quite full, overfill (with facts, knowledge, etc.).
1581Mulcaster Positions iv. (1887) 22 Neither stuffe the bodye, nor choke the conceit, which it lightly doeth, when it is to much crammed. 1611Shakes. Wint. T. i. ii. 91 Cram's with prayse, and make's As fat as tame things. 1774Foote Cozeners i. Wks. 1799 II. 157 He never crams congregations, gives them more than they can carry away. 1828Scott Tales Grandf. Ser. i. xxxii. (1841) 125/2 A boy of fourteen..with as much learning as two excellent schoolmasters could cram him with. 1871G. H. Napheys Prev. & Cure Dis. 35 Books crammed with useless statements.
4. To thrust, force, stuff, crowd (anything) into a receptacle or space, etc. which it overfills, down any one's throat, etc.
a1400–50Alexander 4455 Þus make ȝe vessels..to ȝoure foule corses, To crom in ȝoure cariouns. 1625Bacon Ess., Plantations (Arb.) 533 Cramme not in People, by sending too fast, Company after Company. 1692Locke Toleration i. Wks. 1727 II. 243 Cram a Medicine down a sick Man's Throat. 1707J. Stevens tr. Quevedo's Com. Wks. (1709) 348 Do not..cramb your Hands into your Pocket. 1842S. Lover Handy Andy i, Andy was obliged to cram his face into his hat to hide the laugh. 1865Trollope Belton Est. xiv. 166 He was..cramming his shirts into his portmanteau.
b. fig.
1528Tindale Obed. Chr. Man 97 b, Though he never cromme hys synne in to the prestes eare. 1610Shakes. Temp. ii. i. 106 You cram these words into mine eares, against The stomacke of my sense. 1668Ld. Chaworth in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 11, I would advise you to eate your words..else..Ile crame them downe your throate with my sworde. 1711Hearne Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) III. 200 To have an Oath of Abjuration cramm'd down their Throats. 1751R. Paltock P. Wilkins (1884) I. 14, I had but little heart to my nouns and pronouns, which now began to be crammed upon me. 1863Holland Lett. Joneses xix. 275 [To] cram a lie down the public throat. 1879Green Read. Eng. Hist. Pref., To cram as many facts as possible into their pages.
c. intr. (for refl.) To press, crowd. rare.
c1752Scotland's Glory 69 A crowd then crams into the Kirk.
5. slang. To make (a person) ‘swallow’, i.e. believe, false or exaggerated statements. Cf. colloq. to stuff (a person) up; and see cram n. 3, crammer 3.
1794Gentl. Mag. 1085 (Farmer), I lately came over him for a good round sum..Luckily, I crammed him so well that, etc. 1822Scott Nigel xviii, Ridiculous tales..with..which..Richie Moniplies had been crammed. 1825― Jrnl. (1890) I. 13 He crammed people, as it is termed, about duels, etc., which never existed. 1844Thackeray Wand. Fat Contrib. ii, Poor Caledonian youth! I have been cramming him with the most dreadful lies.
6. colloq. To prepare (a person) for an examination or special purpose, in a comparatively short time, by storing his memory with information, not so much with a view to real learning as to the temporary object aimed at.
Orig. University slang; always depreciative or hostile.
[1741Watts Improv. Mind i. iv. §10 As a man may be eating all day, and for want of digestion is never nourished; so these endless readers may cram themselves in vain with intellectual food, and without real improvement of their minds, for want of digesting it by proper reflections.] 1825Fonblanque in Westm. Rev. IV. 394 An uninstructed man, when crammed for an occasion. 1827Whateley Logic (1837) p. xxvi, By learning questions and answers by rote,—in the cant phrase of undergraduates, by getting crammed. 1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xi. (1889) 94 He had been well crammed in his science. 1864Knight Passages Wrkg. Life II. ix. 179 Cramming Ministers and Members of Parliament with statistical facts. 1879Daily News 17 Sept. 3/5 Their boys had not been crammed, but had diligently studied their subjects.
b. To ‘get up’ (a subject) hastily for an occasion, without any regard to its permanent retention or educative influence.
1853Lytton My Novel vii. xxi, Randal had spent the afternoon in cramming the subject from agricultural journals and Parliamentary reports. 1868M. Pattison Academ. Org. v. 184 Wasting six months in cramming up a minimum of forgetable matter. 1875Helps Anim. & Mast. vi. 149 Discumbering our minds of what we have crammed up for the occasion.
c. absol. or intr.
1810E. Tatham New Addr. Free Members Convoc. Oxford 21 The business of cramming preparatory to Public Examination. 1875A. R. Hope My Schoolboy Friends 150 ‘What are you cramming at?’ said he. 1881E. J. Worboise Sissie xv, She can cram for an examination.
7. trans. To urge on forcibly (a horse). slang.
c1830C. Wicksted Cheshire Hunt iv. in Eg.-Warburton Hunt. Songs (1883) 227 Who's cramming his mare up yon steep rotten bank? 1840E. E. Napier Scenes & Sports For. Lands I. i. 15 Getting to the bottom of the nullah as best I might, I crammed my steed up the opposite sides. 1852R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour lxviii. 379 Taking his horse back a few paces, [he]..crammed him manfully at the palings, and got over.
8. intr. To thrust oneself in, intrude. dial.
1881Leicester Gloss., Cram, to intrude. ‘My Papa doesn't like me to cram in that way’.
▪ II. cram, n.|kræm|
[f. prec. verb.]
1. A mass of dough or paste used for cramming fowls, etc.; any food used to fatten. dial.
1614Markham Cheap Husb. (1623) 141 To cram a Capon..take Barley-meale..and..make it into a good stiffe dough; then make it into long crams, biggest in the midst, and small at both endes, and..give the Capon a full gorgefull. 1747Gentl. Mag. Jan. 18 Mix up two quarts of flour, four ounces of Jamaica Pepper, [etc.]..to the consistence of Crams. 1750W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman III. i. 99 Receipt for making crams [for calves].
2. A crammed or densely crowded condition or party; a dense crowd, crush, ‘squeeze’. colloq.
1810M. Wilmot Diary 25 Jan. (1935) p. xxii, We all made the best of our way to the adjoining room, but a cram, with hoops, is the most ridiculous thing imaginable. c1845C. Brontë Professor (1857) II. xxi. 109 A garden made and provided for such crams. 1858Dickens Lett. 5 Aug., It was a prodigious cram, and we turned away no end of people. 1881E. Coxon Basil Pl. I. 77 A cram like the Fields' can't be pleasant.
3. slang. A lie. (Cf. cram v. 5.)
1842Punch II. 21/2 (Farmer) It soundeth somewhat like a cram. 1886B. Gould Crt. Royal I. xvi. 244 Master..believes all the crams we tell.
4. a. The action of cramming information for a temporary occasion (see cram v. 6); the information thus hastily and temporarily acquired.
1828H. Alford Jrnl. 2 Dec. in Life (1873) ii. 36 At the lecture Evans gave a quantity of cram about the choruses in the Eumenides. 1832J. S. Mill in Monthly Repos. VI. 658 Modern education is all cram—Latin cram, mathematical cram, literary cram, [etc.]. 1853‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green ii. 98 Going into the school clad in his examination coat, and padded over with a host of crams [cf. Cram-paper in next]. 1859Mill Liberty ii. 81 The..temptation of contenting himself with cram. 1860Sat. Rev. IX. 308/1 He has not only crammed, but he has thoroughly digested and assimilated the cram. 1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xi. (1889) 94 If capacity for taking in cram would do it, he would be all right. 1874Blackie Self-cult. 27 Cram is a mere mechanical operation, of which a reasoning animal should be ashamed.
b. = crammer 2.
1861D. Cook P. Foster's Dau. ix. (Farmer), I shall go to a coach, a cram, a grindstone.
5. Weaving. ‘A warp having more than two threads passing through each dent or split of the reed’ (Webster 1864).
1912T. Okey Art of Basket-Making vi. 38 The crams should be turned down just a little short of the stake alongside which they are to be inserted. |