Dam Meaning
/ˈdæm/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA structure placed across a flowing body of water to stop the flow or part of the flow, generally for purposes such as retaining or diverting some of the water or retarding the release of accumulated water to avoid abrupt flooding.
nounThe water reservoir resulting from placing such a structure.
Sentence Examples
The villagers were displaced by the construction of a dam.
There was a water mill below the dam.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The beavers built a ____ across the stream to create a pond.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The villagers were displaced by the construction of a ____.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English dam, from Old English *damm, from Proto-West Germanic *damm, from Proto-Germanic *dammaz.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Nothing could be more business-like than the construction of the stout dams, and nothing more gently rural than the limpid lakes, with the grand old forest trees marshalled round their margins[…]"
— 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:
"Most of the Himalayan rivers have been relatively untouched by dams near their sources. Now the two great Asian powers, India and China, are rushing to harness them as they cut through some of the world's deepest valleys."
— 2013 August 16, John Vidal, “Dams endanger ecology of Himalayas”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 10, page 8:
"Home I vvould go, / But that my Dores are hatefull to my eyes. / Fill'd and damm'd up vvith gaping Creditors, / VVatchfull as Fovvlers vvhen their Game vvill ſpring; […]"
— 1682, Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv’d, or, A Plot Discover’d. A Tragedy. […], London: […] Jos[eph] Hindmarsh […], →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 4:
"More dear […] than younglings to their dam."
— 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 52:
"The dam runs lowing up and down, / Looking the way her harmless young one went."
— 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The beavers built a ____ across the stream to create a pond.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The villagers were displaced by the construction of a ____.