1An uncastrated male sheep.

1. 1.1the Ram The zodiacal sign or constellation Aries.

2

1. 2.1historical A beak or other projecting part of the bow of a warship, for piercing the hulls of other ships.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • They were armed with a ram, relied on oars for propulsion and their deep v-shaped lower hulls had a significant advantage in speed and manoeuvrability.
   • Whereas the Turks still favoured ramming, the Christian galleys had large guns pointing forward above the ram, and were well protected against the Turkish arrows.
   • The Virginia carried ten major guns (four in each broadside, one bow and one stern gun) and an iron ram.
   • Its bronze ram could smash enemy ships and armed soldiers could leap aboard a foe's vessel in hand-to-hand combat with spears and swords.
   • The galley's major weapon was originally a ram on the water-line, used to hole enemy ships or to smash their oars.

3The falling weight of a pile-driving machine.

4A hydraulic water-raising or lifting machine.

1. 4.1 The piston of a hydraulic press.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • Grasp the press body with your left hand, then lower the ram by pulling the lever with your right.
   • The press consists of the die, a pressure cylinder, the ram, and a container which receives the preheated ingot, or billet, to be extruded.
   • This idea was developed in 1820 by Thomas Burr, who produced a hydraulic press with a mandrel attached to the ram.
2. 4.2 The plunger of a force pump.

1Roughly force (something) into place.

1. 1.1 (of a vehicle or vessel) be driven violently into (something, typically another vehicle or vessel) in an attempt to stop or damage it.
   their boat was rammed by a Japanese warship

   Example sentencesExamples

   • A witness in the case of seven men accused of conspiracy to murder told police how the car he was travelling in with the victim was rammed by another vehicle.
   • Incidents whereby civilians try to ram convoy vehicles are on the rise.
   • The fact that these men hit the security guard and rammed a police motorbike shows they have no thought whatsoever for people's safety, and it is vital that they are caught before someone is seriously injured.
   • He said since the trial someone had tried to ram his car and force him off the road.
   • The same man tried to attack a third woman after following her along the M6 motorway, before ramming her car and forcing her to stop.
   • Take the case of a recent accident in which a tipper lorry rammed a car from behind, pushing it under a bus which was parked at a bus stop.
   • He said the three-man gang attempted to flee and rammed one of the Garda cars, before they were arrested.
   • In the course of the dispute, police harassment of the strikers resulted in a police car ramming a worker's vehicle at a Noumea intersection.
   • The man stole two cars, smashed into two vehicles, attempted to ram Garda patrol cars, reversed back into a Garda motorcyclist and attempted to hijack another car before being captured.
   • Brown's car rammed a Nissan Wingroad station wagon driven by Lizelle Santana, of 44 Isaac Street, Couva.
   • In the ensuing sea chase, the trawler collided with another French fishing boat, tried to ram HMS Alderney, and eventually hit the warship while cutting across her bows.
   • Carjackers stole a terrified 75-year-old woman's new BMW after ramming it from behind.
   • Mr Quinn had two of the raiders under effective arrest in a car, but when he was distracted by two other raiders, the men in the car rammed him.
   • The Washington Post's Jim Hoagland wrote, ‘That's like a moving van ramming a Harley on an open field,’ and he's about right.
   • The van then rammed the car off the road and sped off.
   • A crack addict carrying a burglar and stolen goods in his car rammed a police vehicle during a desperate car chase.
   • Six crew members aboard were arrested on the spot and their ship later sank into the sea because of damage sustained when the boat intentionally rammed the coast guard ship in an attempt to flee.
   • At least two cars rammed Mr Ahmed's Rover before he leapt out and fled, only to be caught on the roundabout, the court heard.
   • At 8.50 pm an attempt was made to stop him but he numerous attempts to ram the Garda car, causing £800 worth of damage to the Garda car.
   • The hotel had been ringed with barriers as a precaution against this kind of attack, and the bomber rammed one of the barriers.
2. 1.2no object Crash violently against something.
   the stolen car rammed into the front of the house

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Raiders rammed through the window of the pub in a grey Ford Sierra car, before attaching the cash machine to the vehicle with chains and attempting to drag it away at about 12.30 am today.
   • In Italy, a passenger train rammed into the rear of another passenger train today, injuring at least nearly 30 people.
   • In 1998, the same Golden Temple Express rammed into three derailed cars of another train, killing more than 200 passengers.
   • Taylor drove off and rammed head-on into a car driven by a pensioner before he managed to get away.
   • In a matter of seconds my father had rammed into the car in front of us.
   • Investigations into the cause of the accident are considering the possibility the driver of the train that rammed into the parked locomotive missed a red signal light.
   • He stepped on the breaks but the two cars behind him rammed into the car, pushing them directly behind the truck.
   • The car was then turned around and driven all the way back to the Ballybeg area of the city where it rammed into the Garda patrol car.
   • The view of my trunk blocked the view of the RV for the moment, but I knew it would ram into my car again if I didn't get over.
   • The crows began to ram into the car trying to get inside.
   • Three people inside the car that rammed into the hotel also died.
   • Just recently, two people convicted, one of them for murder for drag racing on a public street, rammed into another car, killing people in the car.
   • A fearless milkman used his milk cart to ram into a robber's getaway car just minutes after being threatened with a gun.
   • When he was sure all was ready, he started backing up, and instantly rammed into two parked cars simultaneously.
   • The incident happened shortly after noon yesterday when it is understood a man drove up to the gates of the haulage company and rammed into a number of parked cars outside.
   • I wanted to ram into other cars to show them they shouldn't drive so rudely.
   • Never stop to argue a fine point with another driver who has just rammed into your stationary car at a red light.
   • It had rammed into another car and the front was completely messed up.
   • Gardaí believe it reached speeds of over 120 mph at times along the Stillorgan Dual Carriageway before ramming into the patrol car.
   • All of a sudden the white car pulled out and rammed into the blue car.

   Synonyms

   hit, strike, crash into, collide with, be in collision with, meet head-on, run into, slam, slam into, smash into, dash against, crack against, crack into, bump, bump into, bang, bang into, knock into, butt
3. 1.3often as adjective rammed Beat (earth or the ground) with a heavy implement to make it hard and firm.
   a long curving wall made of rammed earth

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Avram lives in the next valley over from me in a rammed earth house on a hill above the Kenwood winery.
   • The natural materials discussed in this American book are mostly earth-based adobe, cob, rammed earth.
   • The front is clad with split cedar wood shingles, and the rear is a long curving terracotta wall of rammed earth.
   • The vaulted roof is constructed with exposed light tensile trusses that contrast with the rammed earth internal walls.
   • The new structures consist of a steel frame and either compressed earth blocks or rammed earth and a tiled roof.
4. 1.4ram through Force (something) to be accepted.
   Sunday's referendum to ram through a new constitution

   Example sentencesExamples

   • It was elected on a promise to govern for all the people and it has taken seven years to attempt to ram through the only piece of legislation that seeks to ban something which has no effect on either public safety or public health.
   • Ontario's Tory government has seized control of public school boards in the province's three largest urban centers in order to ram through massive spending cuts.
   • Scare the public and we can ram through anything we want.
   • The strikes have largely been provoked by Royal Mail to ram through far-reaching changes in working practices in the run-up to the privatisation of the remaining postal network.
   • The Dolester used his Senate position to ram through a special tax-break for the Gallo family, worth more than a hundred million dollars to them.
   • Between 1976 and 1978 public spending fell by nearly 10 percent, far more than any later Tory government managed to ram through.
   • The other major issue to anger voters was the government's decision to ram through highly unpopular legislation to change Japan's national pension scheme.
   • Let's put aside for the moment the Administration's exploitation of the conflict to ram through unwise domestic laws unrelated to war.
   • But that is not the Government's objective, so it has given itself draconian ministerial powers to override local decision-making and ram through unpopular projects.
   • They want to invoke the so-called nuclear option and get rid of the 150-year-old tradition in order to ram through more right-wing judges.
   • The select committee process is important, and I put it to this Committee that it is being abused in a very arrogant way by this Government, which is trying to ram through legislation with indecent haste.
   • He was dealt a humiliating defeat in a special election he called in November last year to try to ram through reforms contained in four measures that were roundly rebuffed by voters.
   • The station, which got an €18 increase last September, now believes it can ram through a further hike of €45 to bring this annual tax to over €150.
   • Since then, the massive financial crisis in the German capital has been used to ram through previously unheard-of cutbacks to social programmes and infrastructure.
   • First, a serious change in the boundaries between safety and liberty was being redrawn, and yet the government tried to ram through its proposals in a single day.
   • Transforming the Taskforce into a permanent fixture on the construction landscape is a central plank in a Bill the Federal Government is trying to ram through Parliament.
   • Lord had called an emergency sitting of the legislature on Friday to ram through a back-to-work order, which could still mean hefty penalties for the union and striking workers.
   • Many fear a rubberstamp assembly packed with regime stooges will ram through a constitution that entrenches the army's grip on power.
   • He tried to ram through some agricultural reforms, including cuts in subsidies, but a coalition of France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Ireland stopped him.
   • Backroom dealing short-circuited the process of meaningful compromise as the interim government and its international backers tried to ram through a sloppy, last-minute draft constitution.

1Computing
Random-access memory.

2(in the UK) Royal Academy of Music.