perm1
/pəːm
/noun
(also permanent wave) A hairstyle produced by setting the hair in waves or curls and then treating it with chemicals so that the style lasts for several months: I had a perm on Friday there are several good home perms available [as modifier]: a perm solution...
- What are some good styling options for short relaxed hair as a perm grows out?
- Hair perm products use thioglycolic acid - a chemical that reacts with protein bonds in the hair.
- Sure, people still perm their hair, it's just that the style of perm has changed.
verb [with object]
Set (the hair) in a perm: her hair was permed and then set...
- If your hair has been permed or relaxed, color has to be applied carefully or it can weaken the structure of your hair.
- Quickly she put her dark permed hair in a ponytail.
- Sitting alongside the soldier was a girl whose hair had recently been permed by the local hairdresser.
Origin
1920s: abbreviation of permanent.
Rhymes
perm2
/pəːm/British informal
noun
A permutation, especially a selection of a specified number of matches in a football pool: a full perm of 8 from 11...
- Even the worst footballers' perms of the 1970s could hardly compete.
- The man with the most infamous perm in Scottish football history proved that a goalkeeper from an unfashionable club can step up and do a job for Scotland.
verb [with object]
Make a selection of (so many) from a larger number: one of the teams was to perm any 11 from 20...
- The Scotland coach has to perm four - three starters and a replacement - from the five potential players.
- From these, it would be very hard for the Culture Department (which runs the interviews) to avoid perming some kind of first.
- There are five of us - from which we perm a team of four.
Origin
1950s: abbreviation of permutation.
Perm3
/pəːm/An industrial city in Russia, in the western foothills of the Ural Mountains; population 987,200 (est. 2008). Former name (1940–57) Molotov.