Ram

/ɹæm/ · noun

Meaning

(zoology, agriculture) A male sheep, typically uncastrated..

Definitions by Sense

1. (zoology, agriculture) A male sheep, typically uncastrated.
2. A battering ram; a heavy object used for breaking through doors.
3. (military, nautical, chiefly historical) A warship intended to sink other ships by ramming them.
4. (military, nautical, chiefly historical) A reinforced section of the bow of a warship, intended to be used for ramming other ships.
5. A piston powered by hydraulic pressure.
6. An act of ramming.
7. A weight which strikes a blow, in a ramming device such as a pile driver, steam hammer, or stamp mill.
8. (ambitransitive) To collide with (an object), usually with the intention of damaging it or disabling its function.

Example Sentences

The solid oak door—he fingered it again—was as though made to resist a ram, the walls built to withstand a siege, and every stone and brick in wall, bench, or floor was as immovable as the face of a rock.

About a couple of miles out lay an ironclad very low in the water, almost, to my brother's perception, like a water-logged ship. This was the ram Thunder Child.

He describes the operation thus: "The heavy ram employed to impart the finishing strokes, hoisted up with double purchase and snail's pace to the summit of the Piling Engine, and then falling down like a thunderbolt on the head of the devoted timber, driving it perhaps a single half inch in to the stratum below, is well calculated to put to the test the virtue of patience, while it illustrates the old adage of—slow and sure."

The man, driving an SUV, then rammed the gate, according to police.

Two snatch thieves who snatched a woman's bag experienced swift karma when their victim accidentally rammed into their motorcycle.

The other ships, either not caring or too badly-damaged to do anything about it, proceed on their mission, with König the last to fall silent, shot to pieces in a last attempt to ram the Bellerophon.

The only amusing highlight was Gudgeon having managed to exploit U.S. codebreaking efforts to ambush and destroy the submarine I-173, albeit not for the lack of the Mark 14's trying to sabotage the effort, as the torpedo that had hit the sub had refused to detonate; it seemed, however, that the car-crash levels of kinetic energy involved in the dud simply ramming the sub had nonetheless done enough to fatally damage it.

To build a sturdy fence, you have to ram the posts deep into the ground.

Synonyms for ram

Antonyms for ram

Related Words

Word Forms

• rams
• ramming
• rammed
• more ram
• most ram

Usage Notes

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