Nearby Words

Tom

[tom] Origin

tom

[tom]
noun
1.
the male of various animals, as the turkey.
2.
a tomcat.

Origin:
1755–65; generic use of Tom

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Tom is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
Dictionary.com Unabridged

Tom

[tom] ,noun, verb, Tommed, Tom·ming.
noun
2.
a male given name, form of Thomas.
verb (used without object)
3.
(often lowercase) to act like an Uncle Tom.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
tom1 (tɒm)
 
n
a.  the male of various animals, esp the cat
 b.  (as modifier): a tom turkey
 c.  (in combination): a tomcat
 
[C16: special use of the shortened form of Thomas, applied to any male, often implying a common or ordinary type of person, etc]

tom2 (tɒm)
 
n
(Austral), (NZ) a temporary supporting post
 
[from a specialized use of tom1]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

Tom
familiar shortening of masc. proper name Thomas, used by late 14c. as a type of a nickname for a common man. Applied 17c. as a nickname for several exceptionally large bells. Short for Uncle Tom in the sense of "black man regarded as too servile to whites" is recorded from
EXPAND
1959. Tom Walker, U.S. Southern colloquial for "the devil" is recorded from 1833. Tom and Jerry is first attested 1828 in many extended senses, originally the names of the two chief characters (Corinthian Tom and Jerry Hawthorn) in Pierce Egan's "Life in London" (1821); the U.S. cat and mouse cartoon characters debuted 1940 in "Puss Gets the Boot." Tom Thumb (1570s) was a miniature man in popular tradition before P.T. Barnum took the name for a dwarf he exhibited.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

Tom

see every tom, dick, and harry; peeping tom.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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