CRAM (crammed, cramming)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: crammed    , cramming   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cram mean? 

• CRAM (verb)
  The verb CRAM has 4 senses:

1. crowd or pack to capacity

2. put something somewhere so that the space is completely filled

3. study intensively, as before an exam

4. prepare (students) hastily for an impending exam

  Familiarity information: CRAM used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CRAM (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they cram    ... he / she / it crams   
Past simple: crammed   
Past participle: crammed   
-ing form: cramming   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Crowd or pack to capacity

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

chock up; cram; jam; jampack; ram; wad

Context example:

the theater was jampacked

Hypernyms (to "cram" is one way to...):

stuff (cram into a cavity)

Verb group:

cram (put something somewhere so that the space is completely filled)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP
Somebody ----s something with something

Sentence example:

They cram the books into the box

Sense 2

Meaning:

Put something somewhere so that the space is completely filled

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

cram books into the suitcase

Hypernyms (to "cram" is one way to...):

lay; place; pose; position; put; set (put into a certain place or abstract location)

Verb group:

chock up; cram; jam; jampack; ram; wad (crowd or pack to capacity)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cram"):

stuff (cram into a cavity)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something PP

Sentence example:

They cram the books into the box

Sense 3

Meaning:

Study intensively, as before an exam

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

bone; bone up; cram; drum; get up; grind away; mug up; swot; swot up

Context example:

I had to bone up on my Latin verbs before the final exam

Hypernyms (to "cram" is one way to...):

hit the books; study (learn by reading books)

Verb group:

cram (prepare (students) hastily for an impending exam)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something PP

Derivation:

crammer (a textbook designed for cramming)

crammer (a student who crams)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Prepare (students) hastily for an impending exam

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "cram" is one way to...):

fix; gear up; prepare; ready; set; set up (make ready or suitable or equip in advance for a particular purpose or for some use, event, etc)

Verb group:

bone; bone up; cram; drum; get up; grind away; mug up; swot; swot up (study intensively, as before an exam)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

crammer (a textbook designed for cramming)

crammer (a special school where students are crammed)

crammer (a teacher who is paid to cram students for examinations)

 Context examples 

“How nicely we are all crammed in,” cried Lydia.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Yes, he was his heir, and the old boy is nearly eighty—cram full of gout, too.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I have crammed it and telescoped it.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The next day, while the storm was blowing itself out, Wolf Larsen and I crammed anatomy and surgery and set Mugridge’s ribs.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

No stockings hung at the fireplace, and for a moment she felt as much disappointed as she did long ago, when her little sock fell down because it was crammed so full of goodies.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The poor girl was almost distracted: that quarter of the palace was all in an uproar; the servants ran for ladders; the monkey was seen by hundreds in the court, sitting upon the ridge of a building, holding me like a baby in one of his forepaws, and feeding me with the other, by cramming into my mouth some victuals he had squeezed out of the bag on one side of his chaps, and patting me when I would not eat; whereat many of the rabble below could not forbear laughing; neither do I think they justly ought to be blamed, for, without question, the sight was ridiculous enough to every body but myself.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

From babies who had but a week or two of life behind them, to crooked old men and women who seemed to have but a week or two of life before them; and from ploughmen bodily carrying out soil of England on their boots, to smiths taking away samples of its soot and smoke upon their skins; every age and occupation appeared to be crammed into the narrow compass of the “tween decks.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Although only a fractio of the size of the Milky Way, the tiny powerhouse galactic core already contains about twice as many stars as our own galaxy, all crammed into a region only 6,000 light-years across.

(Telescopes Uncover Early Construction of Giant Galaxy, NASA)

Godfrey Staunton had crammed the note into his pocket.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In fact, I had crammed navigation from text-books aboard; and besides, there was Wolf Larsen’s star-scale, so simple a device that a child could work it.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)