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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

teem.

To be stocked to overflowing.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/tiːm/
  1. To be stocked to overflowing.

  2. To be prolific; to abound; to be rife.

    Fish teem in this pond.
  3. To fall prolifically.

  4. To bring forth young, as an animal; to produce fruit, as a plant; to bear; to be pregnant; to conceive; to multiply.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English temen (“to bear, to support”), from Anglian Old English tēman (“to give birth”) (West Saxon Old English tīeman), from Proto-West Germanic *taumijan (“to bridle”), from Proto-Germanic *taumijaną, from *taumaz ("bridle", continued in Modern English as team).

noun/tiːm/
  1. A downpour (of rain).

Where this word comes from

From Middle English temen (“to bear, to support”), from Anglian Old English tēman (“to give birth”) (West Saxon Old English tīeman), from Proto-West Germanic *taumijan (“to bridle”), from Proto-Germanic *taumijaną, from *taumaz ("bridle", continued in Modern English as team).

verb/tiːm/
  1. To empty.

    archaic
  2. To pour (especially with rain)

  3. To pour, as steel, from a melting pot; to fill, as a mould, with molten metal.

  4. To drain the water from (boiled potatoes etc.).

    Ireland · Scotland
Where this word comes from

From Middle English temen (“to drain”), from Old Norse tœma, from Proto-Germanic *tōmijaną (“to empty, make empty”). Cognate to Swedish tömma. Related to English toom (“empty, vacant”). More at toom.

verb/tiːm/
  1. To think fit.

    obsolete · rare
Where this word comes from

From Middle English temen (“to be suitable, befit”), from Old English *teman, from Proto-Germanic *temaną (“to fit”). Cognate with Low German temen, tamen (“to befit”), Dutch betamen (“to befit”), German ziemen. See also tame (adjective) and compare beteem.

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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.