ham
noun/hæm/
/hæm/
- [uncountable, countable] meat from the top part of a pig’s leg that has been cured (= preserved using salt or smoke)
- a slice of ham
- a ham sandwich
- a breakfast of ham and eggs
- cold ham and salad
- We had boiled ham on the bone for dinner.
- The hams were cooked whole.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- lean
- baked
- boiled
- …
- piece
- slice
- eat
- have
- bake
- …
- roll
- salad
- sandwich
- …
- [countable] a person who sends and receives radio messages as a hobby rather than as a job
- a radio ham
- [countable] (informal) (often used as an adjective) an actor who performs badly, especially by exaggerating emotions
- a ham actor
- [countable, usually plural] (informal) the back part of a person’s leg above the knee see also hamstring
Word Originnoun sense 1 and noun sense 4 Old English ham, hom (originally denoting the back of the knee), from a Germanic base meaning ‘be crooked’. In the late 15th cent. the term came to denote the back of the thigh, hence the thigh or hock of an animal. noun senses 2 to 3 late 19th cent. (originally US): perhaps from the first syllable of amateur; compare with the US slang term hamfatter ‘inexpert performer’. Sense (2) dates from the early 20th cent.
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ham