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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

lame.

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

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/leɪm/UK, US
  1. Unable to walk properly because of a problem with one's feet or legs.

    especially
    With the years, this horse has little by little gone lame.
  2. Unable to walk properly because of a problem with one's feet or legs. That cannot be moved properly.

    especially
  3. Unable to walk properly because of a problem with one's feet or legs. Physically disabled.

    dated · especially · offensive
    a lame man
  4. Hobbling; limping; inefficient; imperfect.

    broadly · dated
  5. Unconvincing or unbelievable.

    colloquial
    He had a really lame excuse for missing the birthday party.
  6. Uncool, uninteresting, or unfunny.

    colloquial
    He kept telling these extremely lame jokes all night.
Where this word comes from

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”).

verb/leɪm/UK, US
  1. To cause (a person or animal) to become lame.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

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”).

noun/leɪm/UK, US
  1. A stupid or undesirable person.

    slang
Where this word comes from

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”).

noun/leɪm/UK, US
  1. A thin layer or plate of material, as in certain kinds of armor.

  2. A set of joined overlapping metal plates.

    in-plural
  3. A kitchen tool for scoring bread dough before baking.

Where this word comes from

From Middle French lame, from Latin lāmina. Doublet of lamina.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.