lame

CEFRC1

/leɪm/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Unable to walk normally because of an injured leg or foot.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Weak, boring, or not impressive in informal speech.

Examples

  • I don't want to be lame; I want to be cool!!

  • Now the President is nothing but a lame duck.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Unable to walk properly because of a problem with one's feet or legs.

  2. That cannot be moved properly.

  3. Unconvincing or unbelievable.

More examples

In context

  • He had a really lame excuse for missing the birthday party.

  • With the years, this horse has little by little gone lame.

  • He kept telling these extremely lame jokes all night.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The coach laughed at the team's blank excuse for losing the game, calling it a silly made-up story.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

From Middle English lame, from Old English lama (“lame”), from Proto-West Germanic *lam, from Proto-Germanic *lamaz (“lame”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃lemH- (“to tire; to break”).