- [uncountable, countable] a thick sweet substance made by boiling fruit with sugar, often sold in jars and spread on bread
- strawberry jam
- a jar/pot of jam
- recipes for jams and preserves
- (British English) a jam doughnut
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- home-made
- apricot
- raspberry
- …
- dollop
- jar
- pot
- …
- make
- spread (something with)
- jar
- doughnut
- sandwich
- …
- bread and jam
- [countable] a situation in which it is difficult or impossible to move because there are so many people or vehicles in one particular place
- The bus was delayed in a five-mile jam.
- As fans rushed to leave, jams formed at all the exits.
- We were stuck in a jam for an hour.
- [countable] a situation in which a machine does not work because something is stuck in one position
- There's a paper jam in the photocopier.
- JAM, Jam(in the UK) used by the media to describe people who do not have much money to live on (the abbreviation for just about managing)
- JAMs may be in work, but are struggling to pay for essentials such as food, heating or rent.
sweet food
many people/vehicles
machine
people
Word Originnoun senses 2 to 3 early 18th cent.: probably symbolic; compare with cram noun sense 1 mid 18th cent.: perhaps from jam (verb).
Idioms
See jam in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarybe in a jam
- (informal) to be in a difficult situation
jam tomorrow
- (British English, informal) good things that are promised for the future but never happen
- They refused to settle for a promise of jam tomorrow.
money for jam/old rope
- (British English, informal) money that is earned very easily, for something that needs little effort
- The job only took about an hour—it was money for jam.
Check pronunciation:
jam